TV broadcaster CNN has decided to end its Vault NFT project, a market for non-fungible tokens that the company created in 2021 as a “six-week experiment”. However, the initiative expanded into a large-scale Web 3.0 project due to the growing demand for NFTs. But now CNN has reported that it is abandoning the development of the NFTs market, which sold digital collectibles tied to major news events. As might be expected, the news caused outrage among users who spent thousands of dollars on NFTs.
CNN abandons Vault NFT
The information that CNN would abandon the project was given by Parker Molloy on his Twitter account earlier this week, as reported by The Verge.
Just saw that CNN announced the end of its bizarre NFT market where they’d sell NFTs of news stories. pic.twitter.com/UUgrozFQQU
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) October 10, 2022
“Just saw CNN announced the end of their bizarre NFT market where they would sell news NFTs,” he tweeted. In the announcement, the news-focused TV station highlighted that it was honored to partner with incredible journalists, producers, artists, photojournalists and collectors from around the world during their time together. Then they explained that Vault was originally created to last just six weeks. However, community support and engagement prompted the company to expand the initiative. At the launch of the NFTs marketplace last year, CNN reported that the platform “would offer collectors the opportunity to own a piece of history.” When the launch took place, the crypto market as a whole was booming. NFTs, in particular, have become a veritable “fever” with investors and celebrities spending millions to own digital collectibles and be part of communities. But that changed in 2022 and the market for NFTs declined considerably. Faced with this cooling off, CNN decided to discontinue the project. It is worth noting that the company raised at least the equivalent of R$ 1.7 million (US$ 330,000) from the sales of NFTs, according to Press Gazette. CNN reported that while the Vault website “will undergo changes” it will remain available for viewing collections and market use.
CNN Suspends Alleged Rug Pull Scam
The community reacted very negatively to the news. Many investors and buyers of NFTs accused CNN of “rug pull”. This is a scam that occurs when creators of a project raise money from it and then abandon it, running away with the funds. Also according to The Verge report, CNN said on its Discord channel, CNN said it plans to compensate “the thousands of collectors” who joined the “experiment” with distributions based on the purchase price of the NFTs. According to CNN employee “Jason”, the company will distribute FLOW tokens or stablecoins to each collector. “We are currently working on the details. But we expect the distribution value to be around 20% of the original price for each Vault NFT,” Jason said.
