CNN is being accused of “rug pulling,” abruptly ending a project after building interest, by the crypto community after announcing it is abandoning its new NFT project, Vault. “We have decided that it’s time to say goodbye to Vault by CNN,” the company said.
“Vault was originally launched as a 6-week experiment, but the support and engagement from our community let us expand this project into something much larger,” CNN said in a statement on Monday.
“Thank you to each of you for your interest and engagement into future projects,” the company added, before touting its own so-called “spirit of innovation and experimentation, going right back to our founding in 1980.”
“We learned a lot from our first foray into Web3, and we are excited to carry Vault’s concepts around community storytelling into future projects,” CNN said. “While we will no longer be developing or maintaining this community, the Vault NFT collection will live on.”
Many social media users reacted to CNN’s announcement by accusing the media company of a “rug pull,” a term in the crypto world referring to a common scam in which developers or creators promote a project — such as a new NFT — release it, and then unexpectedly disappear with investor money.
“CNN legit just rugged…” one Twitter user wrote.
“I just want to say I didn’t even know you had a NFT, and to find out you did but now are rug-pulling your holders, so disrespectful and shameful and your lack of integrity will persist to any future ‘forays,'” another reacted.
“CNN is the rug pull king,” another echoed. “For real though, who actually thought a CNN NFT was a good thing?”
“Even CNN learns how to rugpull its investors. Good job CNN!” another quipped.
“Sounds like typical big corporations jumping in without doing the correct homework,” another commented.
“The most trusted name in NFTs?” another Twitter user joked.
“Vault was only a 6 week experiment? What does mean now for the cnn NFTs that we purchased?” one asked, to which another Twitter user replied, stating, “It means you got scammed, again.”
Vault by CNN was launched in 2021 as a marketplace for the company’s own non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and was advertised to consumers as an entity that would “offer collectors the opportunity to own a piece of history.”
CNN had raked in nearly $330,000 from NFT sales, according to an April report by the Press Gazette.
In a Discord channel for the service, CNN reportedly said the remaining NFTs on Vault will be burned, and that the Discord channel would be closed by the end of October.
The Vault’s website and NFTs already collected by users, however, will continue to be live on Flow blockchain, and the collector will be compensated, the company said.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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