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 made (направљено) private — sparking rumors that the founders had “rugged” for about $5 million.
Са 5.3 милиона долара @фриендсиес_аи тврдог тепиха раније данас остаје нејасно како су средства могла бити потрошена.
Од септембра није било најава, нема ризнице заједнице и П2Е игре.
Тим за свој разлог криви „нестабилност тржишта“. пиц.твиттер.цом/ФМ8итум4Ур
— ЗацхКСБТ (@зацхкбт) 21. фебруара 2023. године
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 покренуо 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 коначно 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˙ – Здраво пријатељи! Желели смо да се обратимо директно заједници са важним ажурирањем. Као оснивачи пројекта, одлучили смо да је најбоље да направимо паузу @фРиЕНДСиЕС_Аи и сва будућа дигитална добра за сада. Имали смо најбоље намере да направимо а
— фриЕНДСиЕС (@фРиЕНДСиЕС_Аи) 21. фебруара 2023. године
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.
Making a public offer to take over Friendsies. I’ll install a new team and take the project forward with a different vision
ИП има толико потенцијала и власници заслужују боље. Једноставно не можемо дозволити да ствари попут овог клизе јер то заиста штети простору.
— Сатвик Сетхи (@сктвик) 21. фебруара 2023. године
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