Share this article
CNN Shutters Vault NFT Marketplace, Prompting Rug Pull Accusations
The cable news network said the platform was originally launched in June 2021 as a six-week experiment.
By Cam Thompson
Updated Oct 11, 2022, 9:58 p.m. Published Oct 11, 2022, 9:15 p.m.
CNN announced on Monday that it’s shutting down Vault, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace highlighting major moments from its history, prompting some community members to accuse the platform of orchestrating a “rug pull.”
The cable news network shared a statement on its plans to leave the platform behind, as well as information on the collection’s legacy.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
News of our own to share pic.twitter.com/qcxaDXNRYO
— Vault by CNN (@vaultbycnn) October 10, 2022
“We learned a lot from our first foray into Web3, and we are excited to carry Vault’s concepts around community storytelling into future projects,” said Vault. “While we will no longer be developing or maintaining this community, the Vault NFT collections will live on.”
CNN said that it originally launched the project in June 2021 as a six-week experiment, though support from the community kept it going for over a year. The platform immortalized the media giant’s most significant archival moments – from Nelson Mandela’s release from prison to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s swearing-in ceremony – as NFT collectibles. Vault partnered with Dapper Labs, the creator of the moments-based sports collection NBA Topshot, to mint its moments on the Flow blockchain.
In its statement, Vault encouraged people to head to its Discord channel to learn more about what shuttering its platform means for collectors. The move prompted some to accuse CNN of orchestrating a rug pull – a type of crypto scam where creators pull the plug on a project suddenly and make off with investor funds. Others said they were disappointed by promises of long-term utility for holders, including exclusive perks, merchandise, upgrades and discounts on future drops.
A CNN staff member, “Jason,” said in the Discord channel that the platform plans to compensate collectors over the coming weeks by paying them roughly 20% of the tokens’ original mint price in either stablecoins or FLOW, the native token behind Flow.
In Discord, Vault specified that users can still trade their NFTs on Flow-compatible marketplaces, as well as on other dapps in the ecosystem.
CNN did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Coinbase, Chainlink Introduce Base-Solana Bridge to Link Ecosystems
The bridge, secured by Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, allows users to trade and interact with Solana-based tokens on Base-based dapps.
What to know:
- A new bridge connecting Base, the layer 2 incubated by Coinbase, and the Solana blockchain is now live on mainnet, enabling asset transfers between the two ecosystems.
- The bridge, secured by Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, allows users to trade and interact with Solana-based tokens on Base-based decentralized applications.
- The open-source bridge on GitHub enables developers to integrate cross-chain support, marking a step toward interconnected blockchains and "always-on" capital markets, with more chains expected to be linked in the future.
Top Stories
