As NFTs are growing in number and with the NFT space being developed for the better, there are scams as well grounding up in this space. There have been multitudes of NFT scams with the background of celebrities influencing the projects for hype.
It doesn’t matter if the project is bad overall, with influencers and celebrities adding fuel to it, the project can turn into an instant sensation. The investors also find the project promising as it is backed by renowned celebrities and influencers. Although, there are projects that are followed by the loss of hype, and the investors are left with nothing but valueless and fruitless NFTs.
Well if you are curious about such NFT projects, this article has got you covered. This article features the 5 celebrity-backed projects that turned out to be scams.
1 The Bored Bunny Rug Pull
The Bored Bunny NFT project is probably the best example of an NFT rug pull ever. The project was launched on December 2021 and it was a collection of 4,999 NFTs. It has a price of 0.4 ETH and as per the project the NFTs were “Ready to take over the Metaverse”.
The project was backed by influencers and celebrities like Jake Paul, David Dobrik, Floyd Mayweather, French Montana, and DJ Khaled. All these prominent people promoted the project and the hype of the project escalated immensely. In terms of money, the Bored Bunny NFT project earned $20 million and higher. The community catapulted in size due to all the promotion and hype created by celebrities.
Although, this project was short-lived and within days after it was released it was rug-pulled.
2 Trollz Collection
The Trollz Collection, promoted by Tekashi 6ix9ine, was an NFT project consisting of 9,669 NFTs with designs influenced by Tekashi 6ix9ine. This project was released on 28th October 2021. Although, the team of the project ceased the minting of the NFTs of the project at 4,797 NFTs. This is due to a hack. A moderator of the project’s discord apparently went rogue and started a bot attack against the community. It disseminated fake minting links that cheated investors out of their money.
Tekashi 6ix9ine took down all the posts and promotions from his social media. Additionally, the rapper removed the NFT avatars from his social media profiles as well.
3 Rich Dwarves Tribe
The Rich Dwarves NFT project got the support of prominent musicians such as NeYo, Jason Derulo, Fred Durst, and BowWow. These musicians promoted the NFT project and gave a lot in making its foundation. The project was announced in December 2021 and the first mint fell on January 2022.
The project revealed features such as an incubator for cryptocurrency projects, a “tavern” in the metaverse, incentives, free stuff, and that NFTs would mine coins for the owners. All these awesome features got the people rambling up for this project and with support from musicians, this project seemed it is here for the long run.
But the developers of the project disappeared with the funding within days of being released.
4 SWIPA THE FOX
NBA player De’Aaron Fox through his Swipa The Fox NFT enterprise is accused of stealing more than $1.5 million. The NBA player assured the enthusiasts of 6000 NFTs and gave promises about private chats with him and that there will be more exclusive experiences in the project. But all this went into vain.
De’Aaron Fox also claimed that he bit off more than he could chew by releasing the project in January, which was during the hype of the NBA season.
5 Eternal Beings Collection
The Eternal Beings Collection, which was backed up by Rapper Lil Uzi. He promoted it a lot on his social media and the Eternal Beings Collection NFT project was launched in September 2021. Although similar to other projects in this list, this NFT project vanished shortly after its release. The price of the NFTs from this collection dropped from the average mint price of 2.5 SOL to around 0.13 SOL.
The rapper Lil Uzi followed suit to the project as well. He took down all the Eternal Beings-related posts and entries from his website. Seems the rapper withdrew from the project as well.
Conclusion
Well, all these are instances in the NFT space letting us know that the NFT space is not free of fraud. Some people are in just for the money and take unlawful means to get other people’s money. All this is an indication that if you want to invest in NFTs you will have to gather all the information about how NFTs work and do thorough research about the NFT project you’re aiming at. Also, just because celebrities hype an NFT project, doesn’t mean that the project is here for the long run.
