Friendsies NFT Collection Raises Eyebrows After Pausing Project

On Feb 22, 2023

Supporters of the popular NFT collection Friendsies have been thrown into panic mode after the project announced it was pausing all activity before deleting and reinstating its official Twitter handle. This has sparked rug pull suspicions less than a year after the collection launched. The project’s initial drop managed to raise about $5 million.

The project made the announcement on Monday night. It cites market volatility and other current challenges as the reason for having to halt the collection’s development.

A statement shared on Twitter reads,

“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.”

After the tweet was made, users who raised questions about the decision found their accounts blocked. And after too many queries from concerned followers of the project, the collection decided to delete its Twitter account. Anyone who has been around the Web3 space knows this only means one thing: a rug pull. Still, given the fanfare and endorsement the collection got, many couldn’t believe it had happened.

Friendsies have since reinstated their Twitter account and issued this statement thread:

˙ᵕ˙ – Dear Community,
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. To be very clear, we are not abandoning fRiENDSiES. Our only intention was to be transparent and communicate with
— fRiENDSiES (@fRiENDSiES_Ai) February 21, 2023

Twitter Users Point Fingers At Influencers That Promoted Friendsies NFT Collection

Some of the individuals that have followed the project from the start were quick to point fingers at popular NFT influencers who promoted the project earlier on. These include Jen Stark, a generative artist, and Farokh, host of Rug Radio, a Web3 show.

When it launched, Friendsies set out to mint 10,000 fanciful avatars. Last March, it teamed up with Christie’s, the renowned auction house, to sell nine early-access mint passes to the collection on OpenSea. This allowed eager collectors to mint the project’s rarest pieces.

Data from OpenSea shows that its floor price is at 0.0142 ETH, or $21, as of press time with a trading volume of 3,774 ETH, or about $6.3 million. It’s a far cry from the 3.33 ETH starting price when the collection launched less than a year ago.