Social media influencer, YouTuber, and boxer Logan Paul has decided to reimburse his discontented NFT holders by buying back their non-fungible tokens at the original price.
According to the news, the buyback program is funded by $2.3 million of his own money. The money will be allotted to refunding holders for the purchase price of his two unsuccessful NFT projects ’Base Animals’ and ’Base Eggs.’
The NFTs were released in 2021 at the height of the crypto bull market with the promise that they would function in ‘CryptoZoo,’ a play-to-earn game that never came to fruition. They also allowed holders to earn a $ZOO token, the project’s accompanying native cryptocurrency — currently down 99.99% from its all-time highs.
In statement released on X, Paul said that he was “highly disappointed the game was not delivered.” He wrote that he “personal spent $400,000 to have it developed,” but that there are “too many regulatory” hurdles he did not “understand” that make the game’s release too difficult.
In his post, Paul blamed the project’s failure on Jake Greenbaum and Eduardo Ibanez, the lead developers of CryptoZoo. He called them “bad actors” who “DID steal money” and “betrayed our team,” and has filed a cross-claim lawsuit against them in the state of Texas.
Holders of the NFTs have until February 8th to visit EGGBUYBACK.com to submit a claim and be refunded the original price of 0.1 ETH, (or around $225). However, according to the terms and conditions, “Hybrid animal” NFTs are not eligible, and holders of $ZOO tokens will not be compensated.
Notably, participants must also wave any current and future lawsuits against Paul and his team. In other words, the move by Paul certainly looks like its geared towards protecting him against future lawsuits, which should come as no surprise given that in February 2023, an NFT holder sued Paul and the lead developers claiming their project was a “rug pull.”
That said, Paul claims he never made any money from the project, and actually lost money. Either way, it looks like he’s trying to make his holders whole — which is good news for them and the NFT space as a whole.
Some Celebrities Release Successful NFT Projects
Logan Paul’s NFT collections were a disaster and show what can go wrong when celebrities release NFTs that promise a lot and deliver very little. However, despite Paul’s failings, there have been several NFT collections released by celebrities and influencers that have delivered on their promises.
Here are three stories about VeeFriends (an NFT project from the entrepreneur and influencer Gary Vaynerchuk) bringing value to holders.
- December 2023. VeeFriends NFT Character to be Featured on Reebok Sneakers
- September 2023. VeeFriends Teams Up with Mattel for NFT IRL Toys
- August 2023. Reebok and VeeFriends Team Up for Limited Edition Sneakers
- October 2022. VeeFriends NFT Toys Are Coming to Macy’s & Toys’R’Us
- August 2022. Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends Just Raised $50M in Funding from a16z
- May 2022. Johnnie Walker Enters Web3 with VeeFriends Deal
As you can see, Gary Vee and VeeFriends spent the bear market building. While that phrase has become a bit of cliché in Web3, it appears to be the best, if not the only way, to grow a Web3 business and bring value to a community of NFT holders.
Interestingly, in January 2022, Logan Paul purchased a rare VeeFriends NFT for 90 ETH, or around $290,000 at the time. The floor price of VeeFriends is still down significantly from its all-time highs. But perhaps if Paul stays patient with Web3 and holds onto his purchase, he can one day recover some the lost funds from his own project.