CNN shuts down NFT project Vault; community accuses it of rug pull

US-based Cable News Network (CNN) was one of the big names to jump on the non-fungible token (NFT) bandwagon last year as its way of keeping up with technology. The result of the news firm's foray into Web3 was Vault by CNN - a marketplace for its digital collectables called Moments.

During its lifespan, the project allowed users to own pieces of historic, memorable news events as NFTs. These included world elections, space launches, and more.

Now, a little over a year after its launch, CNN has pulled the plug on Vault following an announcement on Twitter.

'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. Thank you to each of you for your interest and engagement in what we built together,' the announcement read.

The notice wasn't taken well by CNN's NFT community, as many accused the company of misleading promises, and some even labelled it a rug pull.

Many CNN NFT owners were initially happy to buy into the project, as it was organised by a trusted and well-known body with little risk of scams. Moreover, CNN was still teasing and advertising future drops as recently as last month.

In response to the community outrage, a CNN staff member called Jason reassured the community on Discord that the NFT owners among them would receive compensation.

'The distribution will be either FLOW tokens or stablecoins deposited into each collector's wallet,' he wrote. 'We are currently working out the details, but expect the distribution amount to be roughly 20% of the original mint price for each Vault NFT owned.'

Although CNN gave no reasons for the project's discontinuation, signs seem to point toward the current bear run of the cryptocurrency markets – something to which other projects have fallen victim.

Photo: Getty