Alleged serial scammer launches "MetaWorld" project for at least the third time
Dedric Reid has repeatedly stolen art and promotional material, passing off other projects' work as his own, to promote his "MetaWorld" project — a concept he's been promising (and fundraising for) in various forms since as early as 2016. He's recently relaunched it with a web3 spin, including metaverse ideas and NFTs into its newest form, but it appears to be as much vaporware as it was five years ago. Reid has raised at least $14,000 over the years for this idea which still has no tangible result, though Engadget believes the true amount scammed is probably higher.
SEC charges individual with two unregistered securities offerings related to crypto
The SEC filed charges against Ryan Ginster related to two online platforms that he ran, MyMicroProfits.com and Social Profitmatic. He promised investors what the SEC described as "astronomical" rates of return, which he claimed were achieved through various financial activities including cryptocurrency trading. According to the SEC, Ginster misappropriated at least $1 million of the $3.6 million in Bitcoin he raised, using it to pay for his own personal expenses.
- "SEC Charges Promoter with Conducting Cryptocurrency Investment Scams", U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Senate committee demands answers from stablecoins including Tether
The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban sent letters to various stablecoin operators including Tether, Coinbase, and Binance, asking for more details on how the companies operate, and how they mint their currencies. In the letter, senators write, "stablecoins present investor protection risks and raise several market integrity concerns". Some worry that if Tether fails, it will collapse various cryptocurrencies and potentially disrupt traditional finance.
NFT creator makes more than $7.5 million from artwork he doesn't own
An art curator created NFTs from photographs of Stormtrooper helmet artwork, but failed to actually ask permission from the artists. The NFTs sold for a collective $7.5 million before various marketplaces removed them from trading. Several of the artists responsible for the works are reportedly considering legal action. The NFT creator, meanwhile, has posted a video of himself on social media "wearing a Stormtrooper helmet, shooting a gun in the air and bragging about making 'two mil on NFT[s]'".
Game developers are forced to recreate their entire game after a bug is discovered
Because Wolf Game put their entire source code into the blockchain, they were unable to patch an exploit once it was discovered. They had to completely recreate the game, reissuing all new tokens to players, because of the immutable nature of the blockchain. They've created a bug bounty program for any future bugs, though given their storage technique any patch would likely require a similarly extreme remedy.
A DAO raised more than $40 million to try to buy a copy of the United States Constitution, failed, and then stumbled chaotically to its end
ConstitutionDAO emerged out of a Twitter joke, but ultimately raised more than $40 million to bid on an auction for a rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution. After being outbid by a hedge fund CEO, the group refunded all donations. However, there was enormous infighting over things like the possible value of the governance token (named $PEOPLE), and enormous gas fees taking up much of the money that people were supposed to be refunded. Ultimately, the DAO closed down without a single vote being cast.
- "Crypto collective raises $40 million to buy rare copy of U.S. Constitution", Fortune
- "Crypto collective loses bid to buy rare copy of U.S. Constitution", Fortune
- "ConstitutionDAO Is Shutting Down After Unrelenting Chaos", Vice
- "'Buy the Constitution' Aftermath: Everyone Very Mad, Confused, Losing Lots of Money, Fighting, Crying, Etc.", Vice
Someone mints an NFT of 100 stolen furry profile pictures and sells it for $100,000
In an apparent "fuck you" to members of the furry community who have been critical of NFTs, and to those who have pointed out that you can right-click and save files that people are paying enormous amounts for pointers to, someone minted an NFT titled "Right Click Save This". It features an image of Pepe the Frog overlaid on a collage of 100 stolen furry Twitter profile photos. The NFT sold for around $100,000, though after mass DMCA requests it was delisted from the OpenSea and Foundation marketplaces. The creator later promised to pay any owner of an image used in the collage $5,000, but only if the owner minted a token of their artwork and sent it to the collage creator.
Chinese police bust Filecoin miner-related Ponzi scheme
Chinese police arrested 31 people for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme, in connection to sales of mining equipment for the filestorage crypto project Filecoin. The individuals were all associated with a Shanghai Filecoin mining equipment firm called IPFSUnion, although it's not clear if IPFSUnion was involved in or aware of the schemes or if their equipment was simply used by the outside scammers.
Filecoin mining became popular in China after Filecoin's 2018 initial coin offering, and Ponzi schemes and scams based around the token also emerged. Mostly, these involved selling poor equipment or soliciting investment in so-called mining operations that promised exaggerated returns.
A group pitches the idea of a "Cryptoland" crypto-themed private island with a video that is nearly indistinguishable from satire
Signs unfortunately point to this being an actual, real project rather than satire, but the video purporting to advertise it dunks on cryptobros harder than most satirists have managed to. A campy 3D-animated video with strong Fyre Festival vibes is complete with scenes of its cryptobro main character uncomfortably hitting on a female employee of "Cryptoland", and walking around with an anthropomorphized coin who is apparently named "Connie" (so like... con?), and performing in a terrible musical number. The project's founders say they've already spent more than a year and employed 30 digital artists to produce their 3D-animated pitch, but it doesn't appear that they've put the same effort into making their ideas a tangible reality. They own no land on which to have started construction on their various attractions, or to park the Lamborghinis they promise to provide. One thing they have done, though, is list parcels of land on this apparently as-yet-imaginary island in Fiji for sale — for the low, low price of 319 ETH (about $1.2 million).
Hacker steals around $55 million from bZx
An attacker fooled a developer of the bZx decentralized finance platform into opening a Word document with a malicious macro, which ran a script that gave the attackers access to the developer's crypto wallet private keys. They were able to gain access not only the developer's personal wallet keys, but to two keys to bZx wallets. The attacker made off with approximately $55 million. bZx subsequently tried to offer the attacker a bounty to return the funds, though they were not successful.