I hope you are all well and had an excellent week, welcome to CryptoGod-1’s blog on all things crypto. Today I will be looking at the recent announcement from Logan Paul that CryptoZoo investors will finally be able to claim a refund. However, like anything in life, there is always a catch.
CryptoZoo Refund - A Year Later
The famed YouTuber and Social Media influencer Logan Paul, who was part of a three-part investigative series by famous YouTube detective CoffeeZilla last year, has announced the final details of his planned promise to refund disgruntled investors from his crypto-game CryptoZoo. The initiative comes a full year after Paul promised to refund using after the heat rose on him from CoffeeZilla's videos calling him out.
Individuals who previously purchased his NFT's for the ambitious game will be able to make use of a “buy back” program will be funded by $2.3 million out of Logan Paul's own pocket. Paul will be buying back the Base Eggs and Base Animals at the original purchase price of every individual who wished to play the CryptoZoo NFT game, which never saw the light of day.
User's will have until the 8th of February 2024 to make use of this program, and Logan noted how disappointed he was in the game never being delivered. The game had promised much, where users would collect NFTs, with each NFT being an egg. These eggs would hatch into an animal, one of five rarity levels, and these NFTs could then breed to produce hybrid animals. These produce animals would also have different rarity levels, while each time a user hatched an egg they would receive $ZOO tokens. The amount received was determined by the animal’s rarity.
Both Paul and the developers working on the project had let it in limbo by the time CoffeeZill made his series, but a year later Paul seems to have finally committed to the (partial) refund of his project. The terms and conditions of the buy-back program mean that eligible users will receive 0.1 ETH (about $224) for each NFT they submit.
Users must also keep the NFT(s) in their wallet after being deemed eligible for a refund. Hybrid Animal NFTs will not be eligible for the buy-back program and any investor holding the CryptoZoo-linked $ZOO token will not be refunded for that purchase. The $ZOO token is currently 99% off its all-time high price, according to data from CoinGecko.
Finally, those who participate in the buy-back program will waive any current or future claims against Paul and any other related personnel for the CryptoZoo fiasco.
Paul went on to state that he had filed a cross-claim lawsuit against the projects lead developer Eduardo Ibanez and Jake Greenbaum in a Texas Federal Court. This lawsuit that was initially filed by a participant in 2023 alleging that Paul, along with developers Ibanez and Greenbaum, along with two other team members, planned to engage in a fraudulent venture to execute a rug pull. In this latest development Paul has clearly shifted the blame to Ibanez and Greenbaum. He ended the post by stating he had not made a single penny from the project, although there is of course the potential that his friends or associates did on his behalf. This we may never know for sure.
The tweet in full reads as per below:
"Today, I am incredibly happy to announce that I am delivering on my promise to buy back Base Egg and Base Animal CryptoZoo NFTs for their original purchase price. This buy-back program is being carried out at http://EGGNFTBUYBACK.COM. Claims can be submitted through this site through February 8.
I approached the CryptoZoo project like everything else I am passionate about – with only the best possible intentions and success for everyone who shared our vision. I never made a single penny from the project, period. In fact, the opposite is true, because I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to make it happen. With this buy-back program, I am personally committing more than $2.3 million to buy back Base Eggs and Base Animals from every person who intended to play CryptoZoo. Like you, I was highly disappointed that the game was not delivered.
As I said a year ago, CryptoZoo was derailed by bad actors. Bad actors who DID steal money and who betrayed our team while internally sabotaging the game. This has now been confirmed by an extensive investigation that has involved a forensic analysis of blockchain activity and the review of thousands of communications.
With this evidence in mind, today, I have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas to hold these bad actors accountable. The 25-page lawsuit is public and it can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bu0WMbW3co-HlXq-HlXbLdpAOZSzJKmf/view?usp=sharing… … This lawsuit is not based just on snippets of conversations taken out of context. This lawsuit is the result of an exhaustive investigation that included the review of the entirety of conversations and tracking nefarious trading activity related to the project. Nefarious trading activity taken behind our backs, without our knowledge, and with the intention of defrauding us all.
As far as the game itself, unfortunately it will not be released. I personally spent $400,000 to have it developed and after its completion in early 2023 & some further diligence, unfortunately, there are too many regulatory hurdles that would need to be cleared that I did not originally understand and would ultimately delay this buy-back even further.
This buy-back is a way for me to make whole those who intended to play CryptoZoo. The buy-back is not intended to compensate those who gambled on the crypto market and lost. It’s important to remember that the Zoo Token was created to support the CryptoZoo game and its players; it was “not intended as an investment vehicle,” as outlined in the original WhitePaper.
This solution has been anything but simple, so I want to thank everyone for their patience as we figured out the logistics of making sure the first ever NFT buy-back is a smooth process: http://EGGNFTBUYBACK.COM
A token gesture by Logan Paul at best. Considering the 'strings' he has attached to the refund, for example no hybrid hatchings accepted, he has final decision on which NFT's he will refund, and of course the 'no sue clause' means Logan Paul is all but in the clear for the shambolic nature of this NFT game launch. Users and fans were left disappointed, out of pocket, but all-in-all fans will still back him. That's just how it goes.
Have a great day.
CryptoGod-1.
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