Rug Pull? Collectors Rattled as CNN Discontinues its NFT Project
CNN is shutting down its Web3 project “Vault by CNN,” despite pulling over $300k in sales from the project.
Popular American news television channel CNN will no longer continue its nonfungible token (NFT) and Web3 project announced in the summer of 2021. The company confirmed this in a statement on Monday, saying, “we have decided that it’s time to say goodbye to Vault by CNN,” the Web3 project in question.
CNN Shuts Down its Web3 Project “Vault by CNN”
CNN initially launched the project as a six-week experiment of issuing digital collectables or nonfungible tokens of exclusive historical moments and new stories. However, the scope of Vault was later expanded amid massive engagement and support from the community, the company said.
The Web3 project had an impressive performance at an early stage. Press Gazette reported that most of the limited-edition collections launched on Vault were sold out, netting the company more than $300,000 in sales. Irrespective of the record, CNN will discontinue the project, and the remaining NFTs on Vault will be burned, according to the information posted on the project’s Discord channel.
CNN added that the Discord channel would be closed by the end of October. However, the Vault’s website and NFTs already collected by users will continue to be live (on Flow blockchain), and the collector will be compensated.
“While we will no longer be developing or maintaining this community, the Vault NFT collection will live on,” CNN added. “To thank the thousands of collectors who joined us in this experiment, we are committed to compensating wallets that own Vault NFTs.”
Collectors Accused CNN of Rug Pull
Meanwhile, the community appears to be rattled by the announcement, to the extent some of the collectors are accusing CNN of “rug pull.”
CNN did not mention any specific reason for shutting down the project. However, the news comes amidst the bear market in the crypto and nonfungible token market. NFT sales volume is down over 17% to $124 million in the last seven days, according to CryptoSlam data.
~ By Ibiam Wayas ~
