Published on: 29/12/2022
Coffeezilla calls out Logan Paul’s NFT ‘game’ CryptoZoo in latest three-part video
YouTuber and crypto investigator Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen published a three-part video suggesting that the NFT blockchain game CryptoZoo that Logan Paul promoted was a scam.
In 2020, the-27-year old media personality promoted CryptoZoo in an episode of his podcast Impaulsive as a fun game that allowed players to earn money by hatching eggs and collecting animals.
The developers spent six months developing the game with handmade NFTs as the main selling point. Paul estimated there was a collection worth of million dollars to build the game and develop original NFTs, which encouraged the investors to invest in CryptoZoo.
A year later, the game released some of its NFT animals. However, what the investors received were generic pictures of animals.
When asked about the game’s development, Paul said the developer fled to Switzerland and held the source code hostage for $1 million, which led to its current unavailability.
While I generally appreciate Stephen’s creative genius & exceptional work ethic (I mean that), this one is simply not true. When appropriate, all bad actors will be exposed, explained, & held fully accountable. I’ll speak further on IMPAULSIVE January 3.
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) December 24, 2022
During his investigation, Findeisen talked to this developer and said he had a team of 30 engineers who had spent $50,000 a week to develop the game. While the team did not receive adequate payment, the developer, on his part, said he had not even been paid at all.
Paul said these claims were untrue and promised he would reveal more details in his podcast on January 3.
On December 27, Findeisen and Paul invited each other to talk about the controversy surrounding CryptoZoo in their respective shows. Findeisen later revealed Paul had deleted the email about his invitation to appear at Findeisen’s show.
Logan “invited me on his show” but didn’t include the email 24 hrs before this where I invited him first onto my show, along with Eddie, CryptoKing, and Jeff.🥱
Im happy to fly Logan down or livestream it but I’m not flying to his CryptoZoo tax haven on new years lol https://t.co/o6LcgXC47B pic.twitter.com/sxJjAxyGGt
— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) December 27, 2022
Findeisen also contacted Paul’s manager Jeffrey Levin. So far, neither Paul nor Levin are willing to respond to the situation with CryptoZoo.
Investing on CryptoZoo
Levi Winslow from Kotaku wrote that many fans of Paul and early investors had spent a significant amount of money to support CryptoZoo, and the game itself is not even playable yet. According to CryptoZoo’s official website, the game is currently “undergoing upgrades to the core infrastructure of the ecosystem.”
One of the people who have lost money to support CryptoZoo is Rob, also better known as Helicopter Bob. When he chatted with Findeisen, Rob said he lost less than $7,000 to CryptoZoo.
He said that the game had no way for the players to claim their rewards and that people only put money into a system that provided no returns. An anonymous person spoke to Findeisen in a separate video call, saying that those who invested in CryptoZoo only received a picture and couldn’t hatch the eggs they bought.
According to Findeisen, Paul’s fans have spent around $2.5 million on eggs since CryptoZoo was first introduced in 2021. The game’s coin reached a market cap value of around $2 billion.
About CryptoZoo
Josh Adams from Beincrypto wrote that CryptoZoo is an NFT game that allows players (ZooKeepers) to buy, sell and trade exotic animals and hybrids in an autonomous ecosystem.
The plan for the game, initially set to be launched in 2021, was to allow players purchasing in-game currency zoo coins to buy egg NFTs that would hatch into animals. Once they hatch, players would be able to breed them and make rare hybrids.
These hybrids would produce zoo coins depending on their rarity. The coins could later be exchanged for money, making the game appear to be a way to generate passive income.
