Pentas is one of the NFT-focused trading platforms in Malaysia, which has seen over 46,000 NFT works uploaded and published through it in the first 90 days, with some works selling for over RM50,000. Pentas has also hosted several collaboration programs before, including with MDEC which offered a total of RM4 million in rewards for 1000 publishers of works on Pentas. However, for the past few months, the service has not been accessible as usual, making it difficult for many works that have been published to be accessed or viewed by others on the Pentas platform.
With various problems with the service, now its developers have announced via social media that they will be temporarily suspending the service, or in other words, “pausing it”.
The developers said that the Pentas service leads to high AWS hosting costs, and they cannot afford it without additional funding. Pentas said it has tried to raise additional funds, including applying to various funding programs, but has been unsuccessful. Previously, Pentas charged a 2.5% service fee for sales through the platform.
Commenting further, the Pentas developers said they will not give up, and will try to come back with a more sustainable operating method, as well as supporting the local creative community. At this time, there is no timeline given for when Pentas will return to full operation, or guidance on how creators can access their work that has already been published through the platform.