San Francisco, Oct 11 (IANS): CNN has surprisingly shut down its crypto and Web 3.0 project called 'Vault' where the company aimed to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of news stories.

The shocked users accused CNN of a "rug pull", a term used when crypto developers abandon a project and run away with investors' funds.

The media giant launched 'Vault by CNN' in 2021 as a marketplace for its own NFTs that would "offer collectors the opportunity to own a piece of history."

In a statement late on Monday, the company said that it is "saying goodbye to Vault by CNN."

"The Vault team is honoured to have partnered with amazing journalists, producers, artists, photojournalists, and collectors from all over the world during our time together," the company added.

Vault was originally launched as a six-week experiment, but the support and engagement from the community let CNN expand this project into something much larger.

"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," the company said.

In a Discord channel for the service, the company said that the Vault website will "undergo changes," but will remain available for creators to view their collections and use its marketplace.

CNN said it plans to compensate "the thousands of collectors who joined us in this experiment".

"The distribution will be either FLOW tokens or stablecoins deposited into each collector's wallet. We are currently working out the details, but expect the distribution amount to be roughly 20 per cent of the original mint price for each Vault NFT owned," the company was quoted as saying in The Verge.

A Vault user commented: "Is an announcement of rug supposed to be consoling to a community who waited patiently for slow-but-promised utility?"