CNN NFT platform closing down

The business has announced the closure of the Vault (via The Verge). Without going into details regarding the closure, they stated that the Vault had initially been a six-week experiment before being extended into "something much greater."

On Tuesday, the site's Discord channel allegedly informed users that the platform would "change," The project's official Twitter channel later announced the closure.

When was the CNN NFT platform launched?

CNN launched the Vault in June 2021, selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called moments based on some of its "historical moments." For example, users could obtain an NFT for $500 based on a news report on George W. Bush's re-election. The Vault by CNN website is still up and running, and it looks like NFTs can be purchased there. There is no update on if it will completely shut down.

Members of the Discord and Twitter communities were outraged by the team's handling of the situation since the Vault messages were still generating buzz about an upcoming release next month, branded the 'Art of Voting' collection. The collectables will likely stay accessible via the Vault site, but active maintenance and future releases appear to be over. The marketplace website has yet to mention a closure.

Views on the CNN NFT platform shutting

Critics of The Vault had called the final chapter a "rug pull," claiming that CNN is just another traditional web2 publication looking to take advantage of consumers. Furthermore, the platform is going back on its word by referring to the project as an "experiment", which had not been the case previously. The announcement follows a difficult week for crypto on Tuesday, which saw two significant hacks and rumours of SEC investigations targeting NFT giant Yuga Labs.