Non-fungible token (NFT) collection Friendsies has denied claims it is “abandoning” its NFT project following a tsunami of “carpet-pulling” allegations leveled against its founders.
On February 21, the founders of Project NFT told their Twitter followers that they were putting Friendsies and “all future digital goods” on “pause” for the time being. with reference to market challenges.
About 40 minutes later, the Twitter account was deleted, while the account of Friendswithyou, who developed the project, was made private — prompts rumors that the founders he had “rough” for about $5 million.
With $5.3 million @friendsies_ai hard carpet earlier today it remains unclear how the funds may have possibly been spent.
There have been no announcements, no community checkout and no P2E game since September.
The team blames “market volatility” as their rationale. pic.twitter.com/FM8ytum4Ur
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 21, 2023
The project’s Twitter account has since been restored, and the founders vehemently deny that they are “abandoning” the project. However, the founders account is still private.
“It’s clear that we upset many of you with the nature of our announcement and perhaps we didn’t handle it in the best possible way,” they said, adding:
“To be clear, we are not abandoning FRIENDS.
The founders said the original announcement was more about suspending social engagement “until further notice.”
“This was not intended to mean that we are pausing construction and looking for opportunities, that effort is ongoing,” he added.
Friendsies is a collection of 10,000 NFTs based on Ethereum launched in March 2022. The goal was to give each holder a custom-made “digital companion” that could be used in the Metaverse, real-world experiences, art installations, and finally a game “like Tomogatchi” with earnings.
There are currently 3,323 Friendsies NFT owners with a minimum price of 0.012 Ether (ETH) (around $20) and a trading volume of 3,775 ETH, according to data from OpenSea.
In an initial announcement, Friendsies said that “volatility and market challenges have made it very difficult to move this project forward in a way that we can be proud of.”
˙ᵕ˙ – Hello friends! We wanted to reach out directly to the community with an important update. As the founders of the project, we decided it would be best to take a break @fRiENDSiES_Ai and all future digital goods for now. We had the best intentions to do a
— FRIENDSiES (@fRiENDSiES_Ai) February 21, 2023
In a follow-up Twitter thread about 17 hours after the hiatus was announced, the project’s founders admitted they had been “inundated” with hate and threats over the announcement:
“We were bombarded with hate and threats and both our Twitter and website were attacked […] We are sorry if we disappointed you with our communication today, but we are not going anywhere,” he wrote.
Related: NFTs will act as prime real estate during boom cycles: CEO of Real Vision
Make a public takeover bid for Friendsies. I will install a new team and move the project forward with a different vision
The IP has so much potential and the holders deserve better. We can’t let things like this slide because it really damages the space.
— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) February 21, 2023
Mastercard’s former head of NFT product, Satvik Sethi, who resigned in spectacular fashion he even made an offer to take over the Friendsies NFT project earlier this month.
“I will install a new team and move the project forward with a different vision,” he said.
“[Friendswithyou] if you care at all about your holders, as you have always claimed, do the right thing. Don’t abandon the people who trust you despite all the noise. Challenge me, we’ll discuss it.”
