Youtube megastar Logan Paul faces a class-action lawsuit concerning his CryptoZoo NFT project, accused of being a rug pull. The accusations claim that Logan raised funds for the web3-based animal-themed game that quite simply doesn’t exist. The lawsuit comes after Logan Paul takes accountability and action to recoup investor losses. Read on to learn more about the lawsuit and the future of Logan Paul’s CryptoZoo project.
Logan Paul and CryptoZoo: What Happened?
Leading Youtube and NFT superstar Logan Paul’s crypto/NFT gaming project CryptoZoo could be a “rug pull”. To clarify, this is according to the class action lawsuit filed against it. A “rug pull” is usually when a crypto founder scams their community. The founder first raises funds and then abruptly abandons the project and its community, taking the funds away with them.
According to a District Court of the Western District of Texas filing, the CryptoZoo founders scammed the community into buying a non-existent project. The lawsuit claims the company (and Logan himself) tricked the superstar’s massive online following into purchasing “unfamiliar digital currency products.”
Moreover, the project claims to market itself as a digital collectible that offers benefits, exclusive access and more to its community. To add to this, the project also claims to hand its collectors an exclusive online ecosystem to use and market the NFTs. The filing then goes on to state that the game never existed or was ever in development. And it also claims that the “defendants manipulated the digital currency market for Zoo Tokens to their advantage.”
The Coffeezilla Effect
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that soon after the NFT sale, the defendants then transferred the funds directly to wallets controlled by them. The YouTuber, with (currently) over 23 million subscribers seems to have misused his influence to steal money from his community. Crypto journalist and Youtuber Coffeezilla also put out a string of videos exposing Logan and the CryptoZoo project. After a lot of back and forth between the parties, Logan took to Twitter last month to apologize to his fans and community. He then announced a $1.3 million rewards program for affected players.
The lawsuit accuses Logan Paul’s fellow associates Danielle Strobel (Paul’s assistant) and Jeff Levin (manager). Moreover, Ebbie Ibanez (lead developer), Jake Greenbaum (CryptoZoo co-founder aka Crypto King) and others were also named in the lawsuit. It also states that the team engaged in fraud owing to the game was non-functional. “The wrong done to Plaintiff by Defendants was attended by fraudulent, malicious, intentional, willful, wanton, or reckless conduct that evidenced a conscious disregard for Plaintiff’s rights.” states the filing. “Therefore, Plaintiff seeks punitive damages in an amount to be proven at trial.”. NFTEvening continues to follow the story as it develops.
