The team behind nonfungible token collection Friendsies has refuted claims they are “abandoning” the NFT project following a tsunami of “rug pull” accusations.
On Feb. 21, the founders behind the NFT project told their Twitter followers that they werputting a “pause” on Friendsies and “all future digital goods” for the time being, citing market challenges.
Around 40 minutes later, the Twitter account was deleted, while the account of Friendswithyou, who developed the project, was napravljen private — sparking rumors that the founders had “rugged” for about $5 million.
Sa 5.3 miliona dolara @friendsies_ai tvrdi tepih ranije danas ostaje nejasno kako su ta sredstva mogla biti potrošena.
Nije bilo najava od septembra, nema riznice zajednice, niti P2E igre.
Tim okrivljuje "nestabilnost tržišta" kao svoj razlog. pic.twitter.com/FM8ytum4Ur
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) Februar 21, 2023
The project’s Twitter account has since been reinstated with the founders vehemently denying they are “abandoning” the project. The founders’ account is still private, however.
“It is clear that we have upset many of you with the nature of our announcement, and perhaps we did not handle that in the best way possible,” they said, adding:
“To be very clear, we are not abandoning fRiENDSiES.”
The founders said the initial announcement was more about pausing social engagement “until further notice.”
“That was not intended to mean we are pausing building and seeking opportunities, those efforts remain on-going,” it added.
Friendsies is a collection of 10,000 Ethereum-based NFTs that pokrenut last March. It purported to give each holder a custom-built “digital companion” thatcould be used in the metaverse, real-life experiences, art installations, and na kraju a “Tomogatchi-like” play-to-earn game.
There are currently 3,323 owners of Friendsies NFTs. The collection has a floor price of 0.012 Ether (ETH) (approximately $20) and a trading volume of 3,775 ETH, according to data from OpenSea.
In the initial announcement, Friendsies said the “volatility and challenges of the market have made it very difficult to move this project forward in a way we can be proud of.”
˙ᵕ˙ – Zdravo prijatelji! Željeli smo direktno kontaktirati zajednicu s važnim ažuriranjem. Kao osnivači projekta, odlučili smo da je najbolje da napravimo pauzu @fRiENDSiES_Ai i svu buduću digitalnu robu za sada. Imali smo najbolje namere da napravimo a
— prijatelji (@fRiENDSiES_Ai) Februar 21, 2023
In the follow-up Twitter thread some 17 hours after the pause announcement, the project’s founders admitted they were “overwhelmed” with hate and threats over the announcement:
“We were overwhelmed with hate and threats & both our Twitter and website were attacked […] We are sorry if we let you down today with our communication, but we are not going anywhere,” it wrote.
Povezano: NFT-ovi će se ponašati kao vrhunska imovina tokom ciklusa buma: Real Vision CEO
Making a public offer to take over Friendsies. I’ll install a new team and take the project forward with a different vision
The IP has so much potential and the holders deserve better. We just cannot keep letting stuff like this slide because it really is hurting the space.
— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) Februar 21, 2023
Mastercard’s former NFT product lead, Satvik Sethi, who resigned in spectacular fashion earlier this month, has even made an offer to take over the Friendsies NFT project.
“I’ll install a new team and take the project forward with a different vision,” he said.
“[Friendswithyou] if you care at all about your holders like you’ve always claimed, do the right thing. Don’t abandon people who put their trust in you despite all the noise. Hit me up, let’s discuss it.”
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/friendsies-nft-creators-deny-abandoning-project-amid-rug-pull-allegations