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The short, trippy life of The Sacred Mushroom is over.
What was once the largest legal psilocybin venue in Portland is “permanently closed,” according to Google Maps. Neither it nor its parent company, Kaya Holdings, appears in the state’s current directory of psilocybin service centers.
Kaya Holdings chief executive Craig Frank didn’t return a message seeking comment. In September, Frank told WW that the Sacred Mushroom would remain open even as Kaya pivoted to a new industry: cryptocurrency.
Kaya detailed its switch to crypto in an Oct. 21 press release, saying it aimed to become a “digital asset treasury company.” So-called datcos raise money from investors and plow it into bitcoin and other digital currencies, betting their stock will rise along with crypto.
Such pivots are common for small companies trading for pennies on over-the-counter stock markets. They often start life as shell companies that have little more than regulators’ permission to sell shares to the public. Owners then start a business, or buy one, to merge into the shell, touting the new venture with press releases.
Before Kaya tried to capitalize on the shroom boom, it was a cannabis company. Its move into crypto comes at a tough time for that industry. Bitcoin, the marquee digital asset, has fallen 15% in six months. Shares of Strategy Inc., the biggest datco, are down 53% in the same period. Strategy owns about 650,000 bitcoins.
In its October release, Kaya said it was most interested in Solana, Ether or Polygon, three bitcoinlike cryptocurrencies. Solana is down 13% in the past six months. Ether is up 24% during the same period but has fallen 9% in the past month.
Kaya went big on mushrooms. Its service center, as legal psilocybin venues are known, took up 11,000 square feet on the seventh floor of a building in Old Town. It offered views of Mount Hood. Clients tripped in a forest of potted plants.
Most service centers offer therapeutic trips, even though must be careful not to make promises about healing. The Sacred Mushroom offered recreation, too, billing itself as a great venue for corporate retreats, Halloween parties, or even the Super Bowl.
Running a service center is hard because compliance with state regulations costs money. Several have closed. In September, Frank, The Sacred Mushroom CEO, said the business was “not conducive” for a public company that has to make money for shareholders.
“It’s too long term, it’s too regulated,” Frank said at the time.
The Sacred Mushroom opened on July 5, 2024, according to a press release it put out then. It lasted 18 months.
