NFT Project Friendsies Denies $5.3M Rug Pull Allegations

Non-fungible token (NFT) project Friendsies was rumoured to be a rug pull scam on Tuesday after they announced the pause of the project. However, the team was quick to refute the allegations.

On Tuesday, February 21^st, Friensies’ founders’ Twitter account announced that they are pausing the project for the time being, citing unfavourable market conditions. The announcement reads:

˙ᵕ˙ – Hi friends! We wanted to reach out directly to the community with an important update.  As the project founders, we have decided that it would be best to put a pause on @fRiENDSiES_Ai and all future digital goods for the time being. We had the best intentions to make a

— fRiENDSiES (@fRiENDSiES_Ai) February 21, 2023

“Hi friends! We wanted to reach out directly to the community with an important update.  As the project founders, we have decided that it would be best to put a pause on @fRiENDSiES_Ai and all future digital goods for the time being.”

The Rug Pulll Controversy

A little later, the Twitter account was reportedly deleted and the account Friendswithyou, which reportedly belongs to the founders of the project, was made private. This sparked controversy, labelling Friendsies a rug-pull scam.

Famous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT claimed that the project had hard rugged for about $5.3 million. He further claimed that the project’s Discord roadmap channel was also removed and “1.25% of all royalties (~47 ETH) were supposed to be distributed back to holders which don’t appear to have happened either.”

With the $5.3m @friendsies_ai hard rug earlier today it remains unclear how the funds could’ve possibly been spent.

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

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 21, 2023

Following the barrage of allegations, the project’s Twitter account was restored to refute the claims of a rug pull. The team vehemently denied that they were “abandoning fRiENDSiES”. The team admitted that the nature of the announcement was confusing, however, it only meant that they were pausing social engagements, not the work. The announcement reads:

“Our only intention was to be transparent and communicate with you all that we wanted to pause social engagement until further notice. That was not intended to mean we are pausing building and seeking opportunities, those efforts remain on-going.”

Friendsies is an NFT project that features a collection of 10,000 Ethereum-based PFP NFTs, launched in March 2022. According to its website, Friendsies NFTs are digital companions that holders can use in the metaverse, real-life experiences, and art installations. The team is also embarked on developing a Tomogatchi-like play-to-earn (P2E) game.

According to OpenSea data, the floor price of Friendsies is 0.0145 ETH. There are currently 3,323 owners of Friendsies NFTs and a trading 3,776 ETH.

The project doesn’t seem promising in numbers but former Mastercard executive, Satvik Sethi, believes otherwise as he has made an offer to take over the Friendsies NFT project. He said that he would “install a new team and take the project forward with a different vision.”

Making a public offer to take over Friendsies. I’ll install a new team and take the project forward with a different vision 🌩

The IP has so much potential and the holders deserve better. We just cannot keep letting stuff like this slide because it really is hurting the space.

— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) February 21, 2023

Sethi believes that Friendsies has so much potential and holders deserve better.

“We just cannot keep letting stuff like this slide because it really is hurting the space,” he said.