Solana Spaces

Solana Spaces is the Solana ecosystem's most visible IRL experiment—a brand that began as a pair of crypto retail education stores, shut down after seven months, and then revived in a new form as a pop-up commerce and events operator that travels with the Solana conference circuit.

Origins: Retail as Blockchain Evangelism

Solana Spaces launched its first physical location in New York City's Hudson Yards development in June 2022, founded by Vibhu Norby—an entrepreneur previously known for b8ta, a retail-as-a-service startup. A second location followed in Miami's Wynwood arts district in August 2022.

The premise was straightforward but novel for crypto: bring the Solana ecosystem to a walk-in storefront in a high-traffic, mainstream setting. Visitors could learn blockchain basics, set up a Phantom wallet, and practice swapping tokens on decentralized exchanges—all for free, guided by on-site staff. The Solana Foundation provided grant funding to support the launch.

The storefronts functioned as what Norby described as "an interactive billboard for crypto brands." Projects including Phantom, Orca, and FTX paid for exposure to the mainstream foot traffic. Over roughly six months, the two stores served approximately 60,000 total visitors and completed around 16,000 onboarding tutorials.

Closure: A Strategic Pivot

Solana Spaces announced the closure of both locations in February 2023, with doors shutting on February 28—just seven months after opening. The timing followed the collapse of FTX in November 2022, which disrupted the advertising-revenue model. Founder Vibhu Norby moved focus to DRiP, a free NFT airdrop platform on Solana, which was subsequently acquired by Jupiter in April 2025.

Solana Spaces open-sourced its store software and brand in November 2022 to allow others to run franchised locations globally.

Season 2: Community Revival and a New Model

In January 2025, a community-launched memecoin called STORE brought Solana Spaces back. The project returned publicly at Solana's Accelerate conference in New York in May 2025, operating a Lower East Side pop-up store. The new model eliminates permanent real estate costs and attaches to the existing conference calendar. Spaces takes a 20% commission on merchandise revenue generated through pop-ups. Payment accepts both USDC via Phantom and traditional credit cards.

The revived project is funded through the STORE memecoin community, Solana Foundation grants, and conference sponsorship deals. Amol Gharte leads day-to-day execution.

Solana Summer House 2026

By mid-2026, Solana Spaces had extended into curated cultural events. The project co-presents "Solana Summer House 2026" with the Solana Foundation and Digital Spenders Club at SRGN Studios in Los Angeles—a 25,000 square-foot venue. The Summer House format features onchain art auctions settled on Solana, live music, exclusive merchandise drops, IRL stablecoin commerce (USDC), and robotics demonstrations. Participants include teams from GMGN AI, Serve Robotics, Meteora, and others from the Solana ecosystem.

Ecosystem Fit

Solana Spaces targets a different acquisition channel than most Solana projects: people who have never held a Solana wallet, reached through retail pop-ups and cultural events and introduced to the ecosystem through a branded, human-guided experience. The Season 2 model addresses the cost structure of the original experiment by eliminating permanent real estate costs and attaching to the existing conference and events calendar.