CNN says ‘goodbye’ to NFT marketplace

CNN announced on Monday it was ending Vault by CNN, a program that sold historical footage from the network through non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

Vault by CNN said while it was honored to have worked alongside collectors, artists and journalists across the world, it was time to “say goodbye” to the program.

“Vault was originally launched as a 6-week experiment, but the support and engagement from our community let us expand this project into something much larger,” the group said in a statement. “Thank you to each of you for your interest and engagement in what we built together.”

While Vault by CNN will disband, the NFT collection will “live on,” the statement reads, and more information on the digital tokens is available on the program’s Discord channel.

Vault by CNN also teased future projects inspired by the success of the NFT collection.

CNN began selling the NFTs, which it calls Moments, in June of last year, after the unique digital tokens took off in popularity.

The news network curated photos and videos from its TV archives and minted them as NFTs using blockchain technology, which creates a unique identifier.

The NFTs are sold in an auction. Buyers do not retain copyright privileges over the commercial content but do own the NFT unique token, similar to buying a movie poster.

The Moments can include CNN exclusives, world history, presidential elections and other historical events. They often have a limited window to purchase because the NFTs are dropped in packages around a certain theme.

CNN, founded in 1980, also has an archive site that allows users to purchase and download videos, as well as a Youtube channel containing historical footage.