CNN’s foray into the NFT world has come to an untimely end with an announcement that Vault (opens in a new tab)which promised to let users “collect NFTs of historic CNN moments and artistic representations,” is closing.
“The Vault team is honored to have worked with amazing journalists, producers, artists, photojournalists and collectors from around the world during our time together, but we’ve decided it’s time to say goodbye to Vault by CNN,” said Vault in a message posted on Twitter.
“Vault originally launched as a six-week experiment, but the support and engagement of our community allowed us to grow this project into something much bigger. Thank you to each of you for your interest and commitment to what we built together.”
Vault launched in June 2021 as a repository for “digital collectibles” — NFTs — drawn from CNN’s archives. The plan was to begin with six weekly screenings, including “key historical moments organized around specific themes, including early CNN exclusives, world history and presidential elections,” followed by future screenings with a wider range of topics.
“Token holders will be able to showcase and display their moments on a user page within the Vault,” the Vault website states. “Some limited edition sets will include a premium video stand that will render a physical representation of the moment on a screen.”
Naturally, there was also the promise of money to be made: CNN said Vault would “experiment with a variety of sales formats, including both open editions and limited editions.”
These are the kinds of things CNN offered for sale:
CNN said in the announcement that while Vault will no longer be developed or maintained, “the Vault NFT collection will live on.” Not surprisingly, not all owners of CNN NFT found that statement satisfactory. Several responses on Twitter accused CNN of a “rug pull,” a term used to describe scammers who promote an NFT but then take the money and run.
It’s a bit of a stretch to attribute that to CNN, which clearly doesn’t depend on NFT’s sales to cover its bills: It’s on track to make nearly $1 billion in profit (opens in a new tab) in 2022 – and note that it is the network’s worst performance since 2016 and apparently a cause for alarm, because the world we live in is fundamentally broken. More to the point, everyone involved got what they paid for. The Vault will disappear, but the NFTs will continue to exist, at least as much as NFTs can be said to exist at all.
But other complaints that CNN is characterizing the Vault as a six-week experiment that ran its course are harder to shrug off. In fact, the 2022 roadmap is still posted on the Vault documentation page, promising everything from a new Photography for Change series of NFTs to “exclusive CNN benefits for Vault collectors” and the ability to create NFTs based on which any CNN article you want.
Things aren’t much better on the Vault Discord (opens in a new tab), where complaints about a blanket slip and demands for refunds (and occasional threats of legal action) are common. Partial refunds will apparently be offered: Details will be announced later, but Vault Discord admin Jason said in a message that they will be offered as either Flow or stablecoins valued at roughly 20% of the original coin price for each NFT owned. It hasn’t gone particularly well either.
“20% is very low,” wrote one Discord user. “75% or higher. I will contact my lawyer this week. The six week experiment was never communicated to us.”
“Literally a joke,” replied another. “Everything goes to zero when you shut down.”
One user indirectly (and perhaps unintentionally) suggested that the relatively low refund offer is due to the fact that people aren’t really losing anything. Vault NFTs will remain available and tradable on Flow-compatible NFT marketplaces even after Vault itself is gone. That’s good news for people who want to keep their digital collectibles (and some people in the Vault Discord said they’ll continue to value them as such), but the concern for “investors” is that the end of the Vault will make it harder to make money on Vault NFTs in the future.
“As an investor, I don’t know if I can expect to break even in a few years,” wrote the Discord user. “Is CNN able to share why they think 20% is fair to me, meaning they hopefully think we can break even or break even within a few years? If not, this seems like a blanket move. What optimism are they? based the discount percentage on?”
I’ve contacted Vault admins for more information about the refund offer and will update if I hear back.
