The last task of 2023 was to sum up the year's crypto failures: in late 2021, mega-influencer Logan Paul (now perhaps best known for his PRIME energy drink series and burgeoning WWE career), called CryptoZoo

He has begun promoting a blockchain project called CryptoZoo.

The egg NFT was launched in September 2021 and sold out instantly, but the game never appeared as promised. As time passed and Paul's attention turned elsewhere, the project appeared to be abandoned, and relentless research by Internet detective Coffeezilla and others began to suggest that CryptoZoo was a scam, using Paul's fame and fan base to sell worthless assets began to suggest that the company was using Paul's fame and fanbase to sell worthless assets.

At the time, Paul threatened to sue Coffeezilla for "fraud," but later announced that he would buy back NFT from CryptoZoo investors. Things have since calmed down, and I noted in my roundup that year that the buyback would probably never happen.

Now, I must apologize to the WWE US Champion. Logan Paul has now announced on his social channels that he is "fulfilling his promise to buy back Base Egg and Base Animal CryptoZoo NFT at their original purchase price." Let's take a moment to appreciate the faintly farcical phrase "buy back the eggs.

In a lengthy post, Paul claimed "best intentions possible" and that "I have never made a penny from this project."

He stated, "I have never made a penny from this project. He continues to make eyebrow-raising accusations about the project, claiming that the buyback program includes $2.3 million of his own money.

"CryptoZoo was derailed by crooks," Paul says. 'These are bad actors who stole money, betrayed our team, and sabotaged the game internally. This was confirmed by an extensive investigation that included forensic analysis of blockchain activity and a review of thousands of communications.

Paul has filed a counterclaim against two fellow defendants in the existing class action lawsuit against CryptoZoo, which includes links to their filings. According to him, the lawsuit is based not only on the above investigation, but also on all internal communications and trading activity, specifically targeting the project's two co-founders, Eduardo Ibanez and Jake Greenbaum.

Paul met Greenbaum through his interest in Pokémon cards and soon learned that the man collected not only cards but also nicknames: because he was thought to be an expert in the [blockchain and NFT] field, Greenbaum is a collectible guru in other industries known as the "Crypto King."

The long and short of Paul's argument is that he actually built CryptoZoo and relied on Ibanez and Greenbaum to deliver on the promise, whereas Paul's role was primarily "high level" ideation and promotion. A prominent example of this situation concerns CryptoZoo's so-called liquidity pool (essentially a decentralized mini-exchange for trading certain types of crypto). Paul wrote to his fellow founders in May 2023: "Who is responsible for the liquidity/token pool?

According to the application, Paul's fellow founders continued to try to rush development "to take advantage of the thriving but volatile NFT market."

The NFT developers were honest about the NFT game: "The NFT is a very good game, but it's not a game that we want to play.

Paul played a role in announcing and promoting CryptoZoo on his channel, and the price of the ZOO token "skyrocketed." As a result, ZOO tokens began to be sold in large quantities from certain wallets, and these wallets were "owned by only one of the founders." The lawsuit states: "Mr. Paul was outraged by this and told his co-founder This is not a fucking coin, it is a game, and as of now the coin has risen because of something I said.

Paul was particularly suspicious of Greenbaum, and his distrust led to internal wrangling: Paul launched a new ZOO token to replace the old token one-for-one, while simultaneously blacklisting the wallet associated with Greenbaum. He decided that Greenbaum needed to be removed from the project and sent the following email to his fellow founders: "The game is beyond him. Wait until we explain this fucking surgery we did to successfully launch the eggs and get the snakes out of the grass: ...... It is fucking legendary."

But things were going wrong elsewhere. The game's head of development took the code hostage and demanded a million dollars; Ibanez told Paul that the developer had become a "rogue [sic]." Even before he stole the code, he had been bad-mouthing Paul and the project he was assigned to in online forums.

A few months later, Ibañez was exposed by an article detailing a "lifetime of deception." Ibañez's entire background was a fabrication, including the qualifications that caused Paul to entrust him with the project in the first place. Not only had Mr. Ibañez never attended MIT or worked for an NFL team, but he also falsified a variety of other accomplishments and skills. Some of these fabrications included owning an Eagles Super Bowl ring and helping the CIA hunt terrorists.

Ultimately, Paul claimed that the project not only failed, but was "sabotaged" by the actions of these two co-founders, and that his considerable fame was used to promote what appears to be essentially an elaborate pump-and-dump scheme, "whereby Mr. Paul s pockets were lined at the expense of the company."

Paul is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, all costs, and basically everything else he can get. It is important to emphasize that all of the above is Paul's argument, fine-tuned through the lens of an expensive lawyer. The documents submitted state that Paul himself was a victim of this scheme and was the one who tried to do the right thing when he realized what was going on.

Returning to the buyback scheme itself, along with the usual legal terms one would expect, there is a limited timeframe, and conveniently, those claiming buyback will not be able to participate in the class action:

"You may not participate in a class action lawsuit against [Logan Paul] if you have an actual claim or waive any anticipated claims," the bylaws on the buyback page state, and the buyback scheme "is not an admission by [Paul] of your legal rights or liability with respect to CryptoZoo's various fraudulent activities." However, given that Paul has actually paid the money his co-defendants are getting away with so far, it does not seem wildly unreasonable.

Those who purchased the Base Egg NFT and Base Animal NFT can now fill out claim forms. Claim forms must be completed by February 8, 2024, after which all claims will be processed and the eligible person will receive 0.1 ETH per eligible NFT (current value of approximately $240). Due to the drop in the value of Ethereum, this would be a loss of a little over a third of what people would have paid at the time, but it seems harsh to blame Paul. Curiously, the hybrid animal NFT is not eligible for a buyback.

CryptoZoo entertainment continues: "As for the game itself, unfortunately it will not be released. This buyback is to make up for those who intended to play CryptoZoo. This buyback is not intended to compensate those who gambled on the crypto market and lost; it is important to remember that the Zoo token was created to support the CryptoZoo game and its players."

It is, as stated in the CryptoZoo whitepaper, "not intended as an investment vehicle. [Paul described CryptoZoo from the beginning as "a really fun game where you make money. All of these projects are sold with the promise of a return for doing nothing, which is why they attract victims; like P.T. Barnum, Paul can't help but try to see this as a positive "first ever NFT buyback," but this bunch of crooks and animal jpgs would not be surprised if they had even wilder firsts.

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