Reddit Pulls the Plug on Community Points, Collapsing MOON, BRICK and DONUT

Reddit had spent roughly three years running 'Community Points,' a blockchain-based rewards system that gave subreddits their own tradable tokens earned through participation — most prominently MOON in r/CryptoCurrency, BRICK in r/Fortnite, and the community-run DONUT in r/ethtrader. The tokens developed real secondary-market value and active trading economies, and were promoted as a way to give users a financial stake in the communities they helped build.

On October 17, 2023, a Reddit team member announced on r/CryptoCurrency that Community Points and the associated special memberships would be retired, with a wind-down date in early November. Reddit's communications director said that although the company 'saw some future opportunities for Community Points, the resourcing needed was unfortunately too high to justify,' adding that the regulatory environment had compounded the difficulty.

The market reaction was severe: MOON fell roughly 85%, BRICK about 67%, and DONUT about 66% within hours, wiping out much of the value users had accumulated. Many community members reacted with anger, and some characterized the shutdown as a 'rug pull' — a contested framing, since Reddit did not profit from the collapse, but one that reflected how the abrupt termination of a financialized rewards system harmed users who had treated the tokens as assets. The episode, alongside the later sunsetting of NFT-avatar features, marked Reddit's broader retreat from crypto.