Influencer "The Real Tarzann" (aka Mike Holston) rug pulls NFT project to the tune of $700,000

Illustration of a man with a hood made from a baboon skin wearing jewelry. The man has brown skin and a brown beard, and is shirtless except for furred shoulder coveringsTarzan #2924 (attribution)
Influencer, conservationist, and exotic animal whisperer "The Real Tarzann" (a.k.a. Mike Holston) announced in October 2021 his plans for an NFT project called "Tribes of Ogun". The project promised an ambitious roadmap that included creating a strategy game, generous giveaways including trips to Africa, and donations to the World Wildlife Fund. Various prominent influencers and athletes helped to hype the project in advance of its mint.

The project ultimately minted only 3,179 of the 5,500 planned NFTs, but at 0.068 ETH a pop this still brought in 216 ETH (just under $700,000). The project quickly reduced the supply to avoid the appearance of a lukewarm mint. The NFTs themselves are all illustrations of men wearing various animal heads as headdresses — an odd choice for an animal conservation project.

In November 2021, much of the team suddenly disappeared and stopped posting to Instagram or Twitter. One mod in the Discord has remained positive for months since the apparent rug pull, urging the remaining community members to remain positive. In March 2022, the mod wrote, "I need a huge favor this week from everyone to not spam the accounts of NFT.com guys and Tarzan, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that stops if we want this to comeback, hopefully huge news to follow this week." No such news appears to have come.