Friendsies NFT creators deny ‘abandoning’ project amid rug pull allegations

NFT

Nonfungible token (NFT) assortment Friendsies has refuted claims it’s “abandoning” its NFT undertaking following a tsunami of “rug pull” accusations aimed toward its founders.

On Feb. 21, the founders behind the NFT undertaking advised its Twitter followers that it was placing a “pause” on Friendsies and “all future digital items” in the meanwhile, citing market challenges.

Round 40 minutes later, the Twitter account was deleted, whereas the account of Friendswithyou, who developed the undertaking, was made non-public — sparking rumors that the founders had “rugged” for about $5 million.

With the $5.3m @friendsies_ai exhausting rug earlier as we speak it stays unclear how the funds may’ve probably been spent.

There have been no bulletins since September, no neighborhood treasury, and no P2E sport.

The staff blames “market volatility” as their rationale. pic.twitter.com/FM8ytum4Ur

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 21, 2023

The undertaking’s Twitter account has since been reinstated with the founders vehemently denying it’s “abandoning” the undertaking. The founders’ account continues to be non-public, nonetheless.

“It’s clear that we have now upset lots of you with the character of our announcement, and maybe we didn’t deal with that in the easiest way attainable,” they stated, including:

“To be very clear, we’re not abandoning fRiENDSiES.”

The founders stated the preliminary announcement was extra about pausing social engagement “till additional discover.”

“That was not supposed to imply we’re pausing constructing and searching for alternatives, these efforts stay on-going,” it added.

Friendsies is a set of 10,000 Ethereum-based NFTs that launched in March 2022. It purported to present every holder a custom-built “digital companion” which may very well be used within the Metaverse, real-life experiences, artwork installations, and finally a “Tomogatchi-like” play-to-earn sport.

Friendsies NFT assortment itemizing on OpenSea. Supply: OpenSea

There are at the moment 3,323 house owners of Friendsies NFTs, with a ground value of 0.012 Ether (ETH) (roughly $20) and a buying and selling quantity of three,775 ETH, in keeping with knowledge from OpenSea.

Within the preliminary announcement, Friendsies stated the “volatility and challenges of the market have made it very troublesome to maneuver this undertaking ahead in a means we will be happy with.”

˙ᵕ˙ – Hello pals! We wished to achieve out on to the neighborhood with an essential replace. Because the undertaking founders, we have now determined that it will be finest to place a pause on @fRiENDSiES_Ai and all future digital items in the meanwhile. We had the most effective intentions to make a

— fRiENDSiES (@fRiENDSiES_Ai) February 21, 2023

Within the follow-up Twitter thread some 17 hours after the pause announcement, the undertaking’s founders admitted they had been “overwhelmed” with hate and threats over the announcement:

“We had been overwhelmed with hate and threats & each our Twitter and web site had been attacked […] We’re sorry if we allow you to down as we speak with our communication, however we’re not going wherever,” it wrote.

Making a public supply to take over Friendsies. I’ll set up a brand new staff and take the undertaking ahead with a distinct imaginative and prescient

The IP has a lot potential and the holders deserve higher. We simply can’t preserve letting stuff like this slide as a result of it truly is hurting the house.

— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) February 21, 2023

Mastercard’s former NFT product lead, Satvik Sethi, who resigned in spectacular vogue earlier this month, has even made a suggestion to take over the Friendsies NFT undertaking.

“I’ll set up a brand new staff and take the undertaking ahead with a distinct imaginative and prescient,” he stated.

“[Friendswithyou] should you care in any respect about your holders such as you’ve at all times claimed, do the appropriate factor. Don’t abandon individuals who put their belief in you regardless of all of the noise. Hit me up, let’s focus on it.”