Image clones X and Animus related to the popular Ethereum NFT collection temporarily disappeared on April 24, leaving collectors blank screens and notices about violations of the Terms of Service.
The glitch follows the closure of RTFKT, the digital studio behind the collection, which was shut down by Nike in December 2024. Although ownership and metadata remain secure on the blockchain, visual assets associated with tokens are temporarily unavailable due to third-party custody issues.
Since then, Samuel Cardillo, former technical director of RTFKT, has confirmed that efforts are being made to prevent similar interference in the future.
Source: RTFKTWhy does NFT disappear?
RTFKT’s clone X and Animus Collections images disappeared after CloudFlare lowered the account responsible for the service files. Cardillo said the downgrade happened a few days before the paid contract expires, resulting in restrictions on content.
Instead of showing an NFT image, the holder saw a universal black screen with a message indicating that the content was restricted for violating Cloudflare’s terms of service. This happens because the file is not stored directly on the Ethereum blockchain, but is hosted and passed through Cloudflare’s services.
Although the NFT itself is not affected – tokens, metadata and ownership records still exist in chains, the event highlights the risk of relying on centralized hosting to display NFT content.
Source: Samuel CardilloWhat’s next for RTFKT?
Although RTFKT as a company was closed by Nike in late 2024, its collection remains and circulates in the secondary market. To maintain media assets associated with these collections, Cardillo announced a migration to Arweave, a decentralized storage network that allows users to store files permanently.
Using AR Drive, a tool for interfaces with ARWEAVE, the team plans to move about 200GB of image data by the end of April. This transition is designed to eliminate reliance on services like Cloudflare and ensure holders can continue to view their NFTs regardless of third-party service outages.
The estimated cost of storage movement is about $2,800, aiming to provide a more reliable solution for long-term access to digital files linked to RTFKT NFT.
