Investors lose $20 million in NFT rug-pull

Since the beginning of the year, we’ve reported about NFT scams supported by celebrities, and unfortunately, another multi-million dollar rug pull recently occurred in the NFT space

The depressing scourge of NFT scams

Writing this piece, it dawned on me that this is the fourth NFT rug pull I’m reporting on this year, and as depressing as it is, rug pulls seem to get more extensive and more convoluted with each iteration.

NFT rug pulls are unfortunately becoming part and parcel of the NFT ecosystem, and it doesn’t look like enough is being done to turn the tide.

When we consider “expensive” NFT rug pulls, they always have celebrity support in common. Celebrities hold a considerable amount of sway over their fans. In most cases, the younger the fan base is, the more likely they are to believe everything their favorite celebrity tells them at face value.

When NFT projects offer celebrities and influencers a crazy amount of money to promote a product, public figures and their teams often overlook company and product discrepancies.

You can get most celebrities to look the other way when a story or promise does not add up with enough money.

Recently, we covered the curious case of Floyd Mayweather and how advertising “scam” NFT projects have led to his reputation being tainted.

Today’s piece will look into how the Bored Bunny project led to the loss of over 20 million dollars.

Bored Bunny

The Bored Bunny NFT project launched in December 2021 with healthy excitement and critical acclaim. The project was advertised as a PFP (profile picture) project with an offering of 4,999 NFTs, and it had a mint price of 0.4 ETH.

The project gained considerable traction after public endorsements from celebrities and influencers, including French Montana, Jake Paul, Floyd Mayweather, and more.

Bored Bunny had a lot of promises of unique perks, which contributed to it selling out within hours of launch. The Bored Bunny team pulled in no less than 2,000 ETH from first-party sales alone when you calculate the mint price.

From the beginning, there were discrepancies with the project, like a dev wallet buying celebrity NFTs before the launch. After the first mint, the team launched a second collection known as the Bored Bad Bunny NFT collection featuring 1111 NFTs for the same mint price of 0.4 ETH.

The team released a third installment known as the Bored Mutant Bunny, featuring 3,000 NFTs at a mint price of 0.25 ETH. Thankfully, this iteration of the Bored Bunny project failed to sell out as people began to question the project.

Celebrities have a role to play

It’s painful that many celebrities do not have the moral compass to make the right decision for the public’s good. People sometimes make investments based on what their favorite celebrities recommend to them.

If celebrities do not take more responsibility for what they promote, rug-pulls will keep on occurring in the NFT space.