Worthless NFTs

Mutant Ape Planet NFT developer charged with fraud for selling ‘worthless asset’

Roughly $3 million of investors' funds were taken by Aurelien Michel through a smart contract backdoor function.

erm... isn't that the wrong headline!?

The charges stated that Miche “falsely promised numerous rewards and benefits designed to increase demand for, and the value of, their newly acquired NFTs.” The alleged “rug pull” resulted in Michel attempting to walk away with $3 million in investors’ funds.

That's different to the NFTs being "worthless". They were worthless because the developer extracted any worth - to himself. The DoJ defines them as "worthless" because the promised benefits never manifested.

Mutant Ape Planet offered “exclusive opportunities for additional investments, giveaways, merchandise, and other rewards.” Investors received the NFT but no additional benefits. Thus, failure to deliver on the benefits listed in the roadmap has been deemed a criminal offense in New York.

The project minted in February 2022 for 0.15ETH. However, the smart contract had a “release” function that allowed Michel to move funds into personal wallets. He was identified due to the wallet being on an exchange account that he had KYC’d.

LMAO. Dumber than his dumb-contracts.