Logan Paul, one of the world's most popular and high-profile influencers, has apologized not only to fans who "invested" in one of his projects, a crypto-based video game called CryptoZoo, but also to one brave reporter. Paul claimed to have invested "about $1 million" of his personal money in the development of CryptoZoo, describing it as "a really fun game that makes money," but after the website was launched in 2021, the promised game never arrived and the items sold for it became worthless.

The fact that the game CryptoZoo never materialized did not stop Paul and the developers from selling NFTs of cartoon eggs and in-game cryptocurrency (called $ZOO) to his fan base, since this is of course Web3. The eggs could be purchased with $ZOO or Ethereum, and it was promised that when the game appeared, each of these eggs would hatch into a random animal with "handmade" (in Paul's terms) art.

These animals could be combined to create new hybrid animals that, in pitch, would passively earn $ZOO for the player. The animals can also be "burned" (charmed) to return $ZOO to the player.

In the first 24 hours after these eggs were sold, people spent $2.85 million on them. The "hatch date" was announced as November 3, 2021. And on that day, the eggs began to hatch, but instead of the in-game animal NFT models that people were expecting, the animals were more ...... They were stock photos. The hybrid animals were stock photos merged together.

More importantly, CryptoZoo did not exist as a gaming ecosystem. At least there was passive income.

Rob, a victim of the scam who lost over $7,000, says, " There was not."

The project caught the attention of a youtuber named Coffeezilla, who conducted a lengthy investigation into Paul and CryptoZoo, discovering a number of suspicious characters in the process and receiving vague legal threats from Paul's manager. The first part of his investigation is embedded below, and here are Part 2 (opens in new tab) and Part 3 (opens in new tab).

Paul first discussed the project on an August 18, 2021 episode of his podcast ImPaulsive, and many of the victims interviewed in the Coffeezilla video say they first heard about CryptoZoo on this show.

." We have a large team behind it and probably like a million dollars out of pocket," said Paul in 2021.

Paul repeated this claim several times, but when the project began to sour, he later said that the project's lead developer had absconded with the game's code and was demanding $1 million for its return. in the Coffeezilla video, he called Z He says that he has tracked down this person, called Z, and that he withheld the code, but for very different reasons.

"He literally never paid me anything ever," Z said. And when I was working on it, I realized that they were trying to steal all my work and not pay me." [So I made all the source code private and spent about a month negotiating with them so I could finally get paid. I had a team of 30 engineers working on my side, spending $50,000 a week on it, and all they brought me was a bunch of photoshopped jpegs.

According to Z, they eventually reached a settlement, but other developers who worked on the project also claim that they were not paid as promised. However, it turns out that this was at least in part their fault, and that much of the work was done on the basis of informal, not formal, oral agreements.

The main thing, however, is that those who invested in CryptoZoo bought a puppy. The promised product doesn't exist, and given that the NFT animals are currently photo manipulated, it's hard to imagine them existing in the gaming arena; no one is going to make money off of this except ZOO and whoever sold the NFT eggs.

Coffeezilla's investigation leaves little doubt that something very dodgy has been done here, and with three video titles (which together have been viewed over 13 million times) containing the words "scam" or "fraud," Paul has finally awakened from his silence It appears that.

In a rebuttal video posted last Thursday, an angry Paul attempts to refute the version of events recounted in the Coffeezilla video, claiming that the project collapsed because he hired "con artists" and "felons." But according to Paul, that is not his fault. And Coffeezilla is a "sideways journalist with an agenda," is factually incorrect, and threatens to sue the reporter. The video also includes a claim that the CryptoZoo project is somehow still alive.

Over the weekend, the video was removed (Paul's tweet is still live (open in new tab)) and Paul did a complete U-turn.

Paul called the reporter to apologize and retract his legal threats; on the CryptoZoo Discord he posted this:

"My initial response to Coffee's series has been deleted. I appreciate him bringing this to light." I appreciate him bringing this to light."

According to CryptoZoo's website (opens in new tab), it is "in the process of upgrading the core infrastructure of the ecosystem," but the marketplace for games remains operational (opens in new tab).

This is not the first time Paul has been embroiled in controversy. The influencer faced significant backlash in 2017 when he posted a video showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan's Aokigahara Sea of Trees. He was also involved in promoting a cryptocurrency called Dink Doink before CryptoZoo, which could now be described as a shitcoin.

Still, Paul's career is going from strength to strength. He is the face and moneymaker of many projects, from prime drinks to high-profile boxing bouts with the likes of Floyd Mayweather, and recently signed a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment.

Paul also continues to display truly deplorable behavior, the most recent example being a miniature pig that he purchased under the mistaken belief that it would remain the same size. The chain of ownership is unclear, but what was once his pig was eventually abandoned and rescued from terrible conditions by an animal shelter called the Gentle Barn.

The animal is now apparently thriving, but apparently the former owner was unable to run a cryptozoo or a real zoo.

During Coffeezilla's research, he spoke with many victims of CryptoZoo. They lost amounts ranging from a few thousand dollars to, in one unfortunate case, over $500,000. As in the case of crypto, the victims are ordinary people who believed in the wrong person. It may be easy to laugh at people who believe in the Logan Paul brand, but you can't joke about it. He has box office, and as long as he has celebrity endorsements, he has celebrity endorsements.

In this case, at least, the broader ecosystem and the work of one vindictive reporter will certainly hold Paul's feet to the fire. The influencer's Twitter feed is now back to promoting the hugely popular prime beverage, and normal service has resumed, but it remains to be seen if Paul (estimated net worth: $35-$50 million) will really "make this right" for CryptoZoo's victims.