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Friendsies NFT Collection Deletes Twitter After 'Pause' Announcement Spurs Rug Pull Accusations
Twitter users also called out several prominent NFT influencers for hyping the project, which raised millions from its initial drop.
By Cam Thompson
Updated Feb 21, 2023, 9:27 p.m. Published Feb 21, 2023, 4:25 p.m.
Non-fungible token (NFT) collection Friendsies is in hot water after announcing a “pause” and deleting its Twitter – sparking rumors the project is a rug pull. The initial drop of the NFTs in 2022 raised roughly $5 million. Friendswithyou, the LA-based art duo who developed the NFT project, also made their Twitter account private after the announcement.
less than a year after a christie's auction on opensea and $5m drop, friendsies rugs hard... pic.twitter.com/XpNgj9YOQa
— Mike Dudas (@mdudas) February 21, 2023
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The project behind the popular collection, featuring whimsical avatars, said on Twitter on Monday night it would pause developing the collection, citing market conditions as the catalyst for the collection’s hiatus.
“We had the best intentions to make a true digital companion for the future,” Friendsies said on Twitter. “However, 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.”
According to Friendsies' website, the project set out to mint 10,000 Friendsies, partnering with auction house Christie’s in March, 2022 to sell nine early-access mint passes to the collection on secondary marketplace OpenSea to help enthusiastic collectors mint the rarest Friendsies.
Shortly after the collection's tweet, users who replied with questions found their accounts blocked and not long after that, Friendsies deleted their Twitter account. Twitter users also pointed fingers at Farokh, host of Web3 show Rug Radio, and generative artist Jen Stark and who both hyped the collection on Twitter in its early days.
LOL so a year later after @farokh calls me a bad person for sh*tting on Friendsies for the upcoming rug I knew they would be… THEY RUGGED 😳😂
— tmagled 🐅🦍 (@tmagled) February 21, 2023
fake-rokh even called the friendsies founder one of his best longtime friends(ies) 😬😂
According to data from OpenSea, the collection’s floor price is currently 0.011 ETH, or about $18, with a trading volume of 3,774 ETH or about $6.3 million. When the collection’s mint kicked off, its Dutch auction opened with a starting price of 3.33 ETH, which at the time was about $12,000 per token.
Friendsies had big ambitions from the start – according to a Discord post, the collection set out to allow holders to access a play-to-earn game. It also laid out plans for a community treasury and upcoming blueprint to expand the brand’s IP – none of which came to fruition.
With the $5.3m @friendsies_ai hard rug earlier today it remains unclear how the funds could’ve possibly been spent.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 21, 2023
There have been no announcements since September, no community treasury, and no P2E game.
The team blames “market volatility” as their rationale. pic.twitter.com/FM8ytum4Ur
See Also: Logan Paul Named in Proposed Class-Action Suit for CryptoZoo ‘Rug Pull’ After CoffeeZilla Expose
UPDATE (Feb 21 20:22 UTC): Updated details throughout.
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