Rally Digital Creator Platform Terminates NFT Sidechain

The Rally social platform has shut down its Ethereum NFT sidechain. The team cited the tough market conditions as the reason for the decision.

The Rally platform is drawing flak for its decision to terminate the Ethereum NFT sidechain. The social-focused NFT platform stated that it was shutting down the sidechain because of the state of the market.

The Rally platform allowed users to create social tokens associated with their favorite teams, franchises, bands, and more. The sidechain was first built in 2018 and was “expensive to maintain,” according to Rally CEO Rob Collier. Rally described the decision in an email sent to users as follows,

“As most of you are aware, 2022 was a challenging year not only for the platform but also for the entire crypto industry. The team has worked relentlessly to try to find a path forward, however, the challenges and macro headwinds are too overwhelming to overcome in the current environment.”

Collier said there was a disruption in the withdrawal services last year, and users may need more time to access or have usable NFTs. NFTs on the sidechain can’t undergo transfers to the mainnet. The website itself is also shutting down.

Crypto Community Upset About Decision

Citing macro headwinds as the reason behind the shutdown of the sidechain irked the crypto community. Some went so far as to call the move a rug pull, perhaps jokingly. They seemed particularly aggrieved that the NFTs weren’t transferable to the mainnet.