Four years after Nike announced a surprise acquisition of digital apparel brand RTFKT, the world’s largest sportswear company has sold the non-fungible token (NFT) studio, sending its flagship Clone-X collection soaring.
The move comes just over a year after RTFKT announced it would cease operations, resulting in the Clone-X NFT collection falling to a low of 0.07 ETH, a 99.7% drop from the all-time high of 24 ETH during the 2022 NFT bull run.
However, Clone-X is back at an ETH bottom of 0.3 ETH on the sell news, a 200% jump in the last 24 hours.
Clone-X Bottom Price – OpenSea
The Oregonian, a newspaper based in Nike’s native Oregon, broke the news, saying, “The company last month quietly sold RTFKT, pronounced ‘Artifact.'”
Neither the buyer nor the acquisition price were disclosed, but Nike told The Oregonian that the sale was effective as of Dec. 16, and Samuel Cardillo, former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of RTFKT, turned to X to tease his involvement in the move.
Cardillo quoted the announcement saying, “The story will continue,” and when a community member asked if he would have a future role, Cardillo responded, “You’ll see. But… did I ever stop being part of the story?”
Despite today’s statements, Cardillo has repeatedly posted that he is no longer affiliated with RTFKT, having left his position in April 2025.