--- title: "Reality Hits for “Art” Collectors as Million-Dollar Nike NFTs Vanish From Internet" description: "Folks who shelled out millions of dollars for NFTs got a taste in digital ephemera when tens of thousands went dark earlier this month." date: "2025-04-30" modified: "2025-04-30" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nfts-vanishing-web-hosting" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" - "NFTs" tags: - "cloudflare" - "nfts" - "nike" - "the digest" --- # Reality Hits for “Art” Collectors as Million-Dollar Nike NFTs Vanish From Internet ![Folks who shelled out millions of dollars for NFTs got a taste in digital ephemera when tens of thousands went dark earlier this month.]() *Girl in art gallery \Image: Getty Images\* ## Going Dork Remember when the guys who spent millions of dollars on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) would get mad at detractors for saying they shelled out for [glorified JPGs]()? Turns out those critics may have been onto something. As [*404 Media* reports](), tens of thousands of NFTs from a collection known as CloneX RTFKT — a collaboration between Nike's "digital sneakers" venture and Japanese visual artist Takashi Murakami — started to disappear because the team behind the effort didn't shell out to keep the expensive digital images hosted. According to the [crypto site *Blockworks*](), Nike's RTFKT — pronounced, goofily, as "artifact" — NFTs sold for $60,000 a pop minimum just a few years ago, and would sometimes [climb into the millions]() for rarer versions from the CloneX collab. Earlier this month, more than 19,000 NFTs from that collaborative collection went up in smoke. In their stead, black boxes appeared with white text advising viewers that Cloudflare, the web services provider, had taken them down. ## Sunrise, Sunset Though the Cloudflare issue was later taken care of thanks to Samuel Cardillo, RTFKT's onetime chief technology officer who Nike kept on after deciding to "[sunset]()" its NFT venture at the beginning of this year, the entire debacle has been a masterclass in crypto-era outrageousness. "The reason we're moving to the free plan is that, RTFKT is sunset, there are no plans to do any drops or anything like that," Cardillo told *404*, "so having a paid plan with Cloudflare makes absolutely no sense anymore." Coincidentally, Nike's unilateral move to shut down RTFKT also became the subject of a Brooklyn-based lawsuit right around the time its NFTs went dark — though the two instances don't appear to be directly related. As [*Reuters* reports](), plaintiffs in the new suit allege that the shoe makers stalled demand for the expensive digital images when choosing to close it. Led by Australian national Jagdeep Cheema, the irked NFT buyers claim that Nike misled them by not telling them that the project would one day be shut down, and if they'd known, those self-styled investors would never have bought the NFTs in the first place. Oh, the irony. **More on crypto:** [*Trump Tells Justice Department to Just Let Crypto Fraud Slide*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()