Reading time 4m45s
Good morning, Tokengrapher, and happy Friday. You’ve done it — another week down, and the weekend awaits. Before you sign off for the week, though, we’ve got some crazy headlines for you today.
Including…
YouTubers Promoting FTX = $1B Lawsuit
Doodles no longer an NFT Collection?!
Chinese Billionaire Faces $1B Charges
LinksDAO Is Buying a Golf Course
Does Moonpay Pass the “Mom Test”?
The aftershocks of FTX’s collapse are still shaking the crypto industry week by week, and this newest development is no exception:
JUST IN: #Crypto YouTubers and social media influencers sued for $1 billion in a class action lawsuit for promoting FTX.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru)
Mar 16, 2023
FTX influencers are being sued for $1B for promoting the failed crypto exchange without disclosing the compensation they received.
BREAKING: YouTubers promoting FTX are facing a $1 billion class action lawsuit😮
— Bitcoin News ⚡ (@BitcoinNewsCom)
Mar 16, 2023
It’s a class-action lawsuit led by Edwin Garrison and was filed in Florida on March 15. Here’s the list of the eight defendant YouTubers in the case:
Ben Armstrong (BitBoy)
Kevin Paffrath
Graham Stephan
Andrei Jikh
Jaspreet Singh
Brian Jung
Jeremy Lefebvre
Tom Nash
Erika Kullberg
Creators Agency LLC
Youtubers promoting FTX are being sued in a class action lawsuit, claiming $1 billion in damages.
I see Bitboy on that list 💀💀💀
Yikes
— 𝔅𝔲𝔩𝔩𝔯𝔲𝔫 𝔊𝔯𝔞𝔳𝔞𝔫𝔬 (@Bullrun_Gravano)
Mar 16, 2023
These are high-profile influencers, some of whom have multiple millions of followers. Here’s the wording directly from the lawsuit itself:
“Though FTX paid Defendants handsomely to push its brand and encourage their followers to invest, Defendants did not disclose the nature and scope of their sponsorships and/or endorsement deals, payments and compensation, nor conduct adequate (if any) due diligence.”
There are seven plaintiffs (person bringing the case to a court of law) in this case, and it’s actually a consolidation of several different similar cases against FTX influencers.
YouTuber and crypto journalist Coffeezilla has reached out to all eight defendants to hear their responses to the suit, but has only heard back from Paffrath, who stated that he would only consider paying customers back out of “charity.”
BitBoy, however, has taken a totally different stance in public: he’s declared war, announcing that he’s going to countersue and insisting that he’s neither had contact with anyone at FTX nor even received a link for customer referrals from them.
Countersuit coming. The lawyers on this case can’t possibly be more stupid. I’ve never had contact with anyone at FTX and never even had a reflink.
Show me you are dumb without telling me you are dumb.
I’m going to roast these Low IQ plebs and their lawyers
— Ben Armstrong (@Bitboy_Crypto)
Mar 16, 2023
This is a huge development for the industry, and just like with every case the SEC files against crypto companies and exchanges, the results of this class-action lawsuit will likely determine the “rules of the game” moving forward for both firms and influencers in the crypto space.
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This story is turning heads in a bad way. Doodles NFT founder Jordan Castro, aka “Poopie,” has announced that he and his team are apparently pivoting away from Doodles’ image as an “NFT project” entirely.
“We are no longer an ‘NFT project’” - @doodles co-founder @poopie 👀
Many projects are navigating the tension between delivering value to holders and creating new and sustainable revenue streams.
Thoughts?
— nft now (@nftnow)
Mar 16, 2023
Poopie’s announcement was largely alarming and confusing to the community, especially to holders of the NFTs themselves, evoking mixed reactions.
Some are in support, supporting the belief that NFT teams are basically startup businesses in nature in the first place — while others see this as a betrayal of Doodles holders who were hoping to make money from their investment.
I think founders in NFT, like the one at @doodles, is likely undergoing extreme stress this last 3 months and finally snapped. I agree and disagree with @poopie. Long post time 🧵
Agree: You need a business beyond the NFT because there’s no recurring revenue.
Disagree: you… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Jonah 🎮 (@RealJonahBlake)
Mar 16, 2023
So @doodles got 50M then decided not to be an NFT project anymore😂
This is basically a long way of saying “we’re going to be a web2 business and we don’t care about our holders.”
— Farmer Nash🍬 (@FarmerNash_)
Mar 16, 2023
Poopie released a statement on Twitter addressing the community’s response, explaining himself further but largely standing by what he said in the first place:
hey web3, here are my comments on the feedback
"doodles isn't an NFT project"
this is true. but what’s also true is i've dedicated my career to the blockchain. i'll never abandon the pursuit of delivering the promises of this tech to the world. doodles started as an NFT… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— poopie 🗺 (@poopie)
Mar 16, 2023
The Doodles collection was released in October of 2021 and quickly became a major project within the industry after that, building a reputation for its unique art style and community focus.
Although poopie may be one of the first blue-chip project founders to say something like this, we would bet that other popular NFT founders are also struggling to define what their projects are now: collections or businesses?
BAYCs and MAYCs have the largest NFT Twitter community reach, according to nftinspect.xyz — but which collection has the next-biggest engagement?
A. AzukiB. DeGodsC. Y00tsB. CryptoPunks
Scroll down to the bottom to see if you're right!
Other Top Stories Today 📢
According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Ho Wan Kwok, aka Miles Guo, aka Guo Wengui, has been arrested on twelve separate charges, including money laundering, securities fraud, wire fraud, and several other crimes. The billionaire launched multiple cryptocurrencies on the Chinese crypto platform Himilaya Exchange and promised investors that he himself would repay any and all losses that they incurred, saying “If anyone loses money, I can say that I will compensate 100%. I give you 100%. Whoever loses money, I will bear it.” Guo has also sold massive amounts of stock in multiple unregistered ICOs and IPOs, then misappropriated funds afterwards.
In an exciting development for LinksDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has officially won an auction for Spey Bay Golf Club in Scotland after members chose to put in an offer through the community’s governance vote. The initial listing price for the course was $900,000, but the final bid price is expected to be much higher — LinksDAO’s offer was apparently head and shoulders above other bids. The organization is made up of a “global group of golf enthusiasts.” This feels like a huge win for DAOs everywhere and for crypto in general — a crew of golf lovers banded together to make something incredible happen as a community that wouldn’t have been possible as individuals.
Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO of crypto payment infrastructure firm Moonpay, plans to bring NFTs and blockchain tech to the masses — and his test of success? To make it so user-friendly that even your mom can use it. He and his company "want to make it really easy, for anyone, anywhere in the world, to be able to use their debit and credit card, payment methods, we want to localize that experience to make it easy for them to purchase their first crypto or their first NFT.” Massive name brands like Puma, Nike, Fox, and Universal have already partnered with Moonpay to use its smart contract management system, Hypermint.
❓ Trivia Answer
Answer: B.
DeGods has the next-largest Twitter community reach at 40%, meaning that roughly 40% of all NFT Twitter users were exposed to the collection on some level within the past 24 hours.
Web3 Resource of the Day
What is the EVM? Ethereum Virtual Machine - Explained with Animations | Video from Whiteboard CryptoMaybe you’ve heard of the Ethereum Virtual Machine, maybe you haven’t — but either way, we think that gaining a solid understanding of this integral element of Ethereum tech is worth 8 minutes of your time. Why do non-ethereum chains like Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Fantom, and Polygon use it, even though it was made for Ethereum? Technically a cloud computer made up of thousands of actual computers, check this well animated explanation video to understand what the EVM is and how it works.
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DISCLAIMER: This is not financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Do your own research.