Nike sells RTFKT! NKE stock price is sluggish, but CloneX surprisingly surges 280% to celebrate the rally

Global sports giant Nike (NKE) shocked the market in early 2026 by confirming the sale of its Web3 subsidiary RTFKT to a mysterious buyer, officially ending a four-year metaverse experiment. However, market reactions have been mixed: Nike’s stock price continues to hover around $63 due to declining earnings and a slowdown in the Chinese market; meanwhile, the NFT blue-chip project CloneX, seen as a discarded asset, has experienced a surge in speculative buying, with its floor price skyrocketing nearly 3 times against the trend.

Nike Sells RTFKT to Accelerate Web3 Divestment

According to Bloomberg, sports leader Nike confirmed the sale of its Web3 subsidiary RTFKT to a mysterious buyer, marking the end of its four-year metaverse experiment.

This move is a key step in new CEO Elliott Hill’s strategy to refocus on core sports business. Facing declining revenue and pressure on its core operations, Nike has chosen to cut losses and stop burning cash on non-core virtual sneaker ventures, instead concentrating resources on physical product innovation and wholesale channel recovery.

On December 19, last year, Nike’s stock price experienced intense selling pressure after releasing its earnings report, with a single-day drop of over 10%. Although revenue barely met expectations, a sharp decline in profitability and severe downturns in the Greater China market caused investors to lose patience with the new CEO’s reforms, leading to one of the worst single-day declines in recent years. The sale of RTFKT is seen as a signal of loss-cutting, and investors are watching to see the effectiveness of the new CEO’s reforms.

CloneX’s “Liberation” Celebration

After Nike confirmed the sale, the CloneX community viewed it as a positive development, with the floor price soaring from a near-dead 0.1 ETH range to between 0.28 and 0.36 ETH within 24 hours, an increase of over 280%.

Market rumors suggest that the new buyer could be Yuga Labs or other Web3-native giants. Investors are betting that RTFKT, freed from Nike’s regulatory and bureaucratic constraints, can restart more aggressive tokenomics or gaming enablement, leading to a flood of speculative capital into the “rebound” rally.

This article, Nike Sells RTFKT! NKE Stock Underperforms, but CloneX Surges 280% in Celebration, first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.