The slow death of retailer-led mobile payments consortium MCX continues with news that the outfit is ending its CurrentC app's beta test and shutting down all accounts.
The move to close the Columbus, Ohio beta on 28 June comes just weeks after the consortium laid off around 30 staffers and kicked plans for a nationwide rollout into the long grass.
A Q&A on the CurrentC site says that "we have not yet determined the future timing of CurrentC but we will keep you posted".
Some of America's biggest retailers, including 7-Eleven, Target and Walmart, banded together back in 2012 to develop their own mobile payments system, contending that they could do better than the crowded field of banks, telcos and technology companies already in the ring.
But while the likes of Google, Apple and Samsung have all introduced NFC-based wallets in the years since, MCX's QR code-based rival never made it beyond the beta testing phase.
Last December MCX's biggest player, Walmart, dealt the JV a major blow when it unveiled plans to add a QR code-based payments feature to its own app.
Then, earlier this year MCX CEO Brian Mooney signalled a shift in direction that will see the group try to tie up deals with financial institutions similar to one struck with Chase.
"As MCX has said many times, the mobile payments space is just beginning to take shape - it is early in a long game. MCX’s owner-members remain committed to our future," said Mooney at the time.