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Investors still waiting on $1.9M refund Logan Paul promised six months ago: CoffeeZilla

Coffezilla asserted that the refund process should be quite easy to sort while the financial implications aren't an issue for someone as wealthy as Logan Paul.

Investors in Logan Paul’s troubled NFT gaming project CryptoZoo are reportedly still waiting for any specific details on the 1000 Ether (ETH) refund (worth $1.93 million at current prices) that was promised back in January.

In a YouTube video posted on June 30, “internet detective” Coffezilla — the person who initially brought the project’s issues to light in December 2022 — asserted that Paul’s communication with the CryptoZoo community has dried up over recent months:

“It’s been six months, so here’s a follow-up. Logan Paul has not paid back his victims, he hasn’t talked about it since he first announced he was gonna pay them back. And what’s worst of all, he doesn’t seem to have a plan in place to refund anyone.”

“How do I know that? Well because I've been asking Logan for that plan to refund people, the entire time, behind the scenes,” he added.

CryptoZoo was launched in September 2021, intending to be a NFT breeding game offering opportunities to earn ZOO tokens and NFTs, with Paul himself describing it as a “really fun game that makes you money.”

However, with lackluster NFT artwork that was seemingly ripped from Adobe Stock images, tanking NFT and ZOO token prices and an apparent failure to deliver on the roadmap, investors became disgruntled by late 2022.

After facing strong backlash from the community following Coffezilla’s series of expose videos on CryptoZoo, Paul ultimately announced a plan to refund investors on January 14, while also vowing to deliver on the project’s roadmap.

This however, didn’t stop CryptoZoo and Paul from being slapped with a class action lawsuit the following month.

In Coffeezilla’s latest video, he shared screenshots of email communications with Paul’s lawyer Jeffrey Neiman of the MNR law firm, which appear to suggest that a concrete plan has yet to be established.

“We represent Logan Paul. Mr. Paul has informed us of your outreach about the status of the CryptoZoo egg buyback. Mr. Paul remains committed to this process. We are working with Mr. Paul to evaluate the best way to achieve this goal,” the email read.

Related: What are blue-chip NFTs, and how to find them?

Coffezilla went on to raise issues with this statement, as he highlighted the simplicity of paying blockchain developers to promptly write the code for the refund process,  while also asserting that Paul is clearly wealthy enough to make investors whole.

“So you’re still at the whiteboard then? Guys this is a statement you say when you have no plan, or you’re stalling, [...] I mean that’s where Logan was back in January, he was evaluating.”

“Am I supposed to believe that six months later you guys haven’t figured this out?” he added.

At the time of writing Paul is yet to post a response on YouTube or Twitter.

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Logan Paul unveils $1.3M CryptoZoo recovery plan

As part of the plan, Logan Paul stated that he will commit 1,000 ETH to repay disgruntled investors that want to make an exit via burning their CryptoZOO NFTs.

YouTuber Logan Paul has unveiled a $1.5 million recovery plan for the people who invested in his beleaguered NFT project CryptoZoo.

Announcing the move in a video shared via Twitter on Jan. 13, Paul reiterated that he is no longer looking to sue fellow YouTuber Coffeezilla for defamation over accusations he made in a critical series of videos on Paul’s NFT project.

As such, Paul emphasized that he is instead focused on fixing CryptoZoo, delivering on the roadmap and making things right with fans and investors:

“The fact is, suing Coffeezilla is not going to help Cryptozoo holders so I do need to focus my attention where it should be, which is on fans and supporters of me.”

Paul outlined that his recovery plan consists of three stages. Firstly, he and his manager /CryptoZOO co-founder Jeff Levin will burn their ZOO token holdings so that they “have no financial upside” in the game, and so that the token supposedly has more value.

Secondly, he claimed that he will personally commit 1,000 Ether (ETH) as part of a rewards program that enables “disappointed” investors to burn their NFTs to get the initial 0.1 ETH ($150) mint price back.

Reaction tweet from @CryptoKingBob: Twitter

It is worth noting that at the time of Paul’s tweet, 1,000 ETH was worth around $1.3 million, however the price of ETH — among a host of other top assets — has since been on a hefty pump that has seen its price gain 10.2% over the past 24 hours to sit at roughly $1,548.

Finally, Paul noted that the third stage is to “obviously finish and deliver the game as outlined in the whitepaper,” which was initially touted as a play-to-earn game that involved breeding animal NFTs to receive ZOO token rewards.

“To say I am disappointed in how this was handled internally is an understatement, there’s a full internal investigation going on along with an audit and we are going to pursue full legal action for whoever needs to be held accountable.”

“If any money is recovered in the process, it’ll go right to the community,” he added.

The community reaction to Paul’s Twitter post was mixed, with some tipping their hats to Paul’s efforts, while others continued to pile on with further criticism.

Related: NFTs have a brighter future on Instagram than on Twitter

Users such as @tharaxis noted that while criticism of Paul and CryptoZOO was valid, “all of this seems very positive and while it took a while this definitely deserves a ‘good job’. Hopefully it stays that way.”

While the founder and CEO of Genius Group Roger Hamilton added: “‘i’m sorry’ and compensation to those who lost money. How great if all CoffeeZilla investigations would end up this way.”

On the other end of the spectrum, popular NFT and crypto trader @crypto_bitlord7 stated: “But let’s be honest. You didn’t care until it started to impact your reputation.”

“You then threatened to sue. And when you realized it backfired, you started this to try to please people. You are as fake as it gets. A true Larp,” they wrote.

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Logan Paul backflips on defamation lawsuit against Coffeezilla, apologizes

Logan Paul has deleted his response video aimed at Coffeezilla and has apologized in a surprise u-turn.

YouTuber Logan Paul has deleted a video in which he threatened to sue internet detective Stephen "Coffeezilla" Findeisen over a three-part series that painted Paul’s CryptoZoo project as a "scam."

According to Coffezilla in a Jan. 6 Twitter post, Paul has promised to drop his threats of filing a defamation lawsuit over the videos. 

Sharing a screenshot from the CryptoZoo Discord server, Findeisen also showed a message from Paul to user confirming he deleted his initial response to Coffeezilla’s video series and apologized, which read:

“It was rash and misaligned with the trust issue at hand, so I called him today and apologized.”

“The war is not with Coffee. In fact, I’m grateful he brought this to light. I will be taking accountability, apologizing, and coming forward with a plan in the near future,” Paul added.

At the time of writing, Paul’s Jan. 3 response video to Coffeezilla’s accusations has been removed from YouTube. The Twitter post pointing to the video is still up as is his initial Dec. 23 post calling the allegations “Not true."

Related: Nifty News: IHOP bamboozles crypto users with ‘NFT,’ Logan Paul’s NFT falls to $10 and more

The two YouTubers began a war of words after Coffeezilla launched the first of a three-part video series on Dec. 17 alleging CryptoZoo of numerous business malpractices while also calling out Paul — the face of the project.

In his now-deleted response video to Coffeezilla, Paul haaccused Coffeezilla of defamation, adding “I’ll see you in court.”

Coffeezilla mentioned in his post that Paul is possibly "making a 3rd response," but at the time of writing neither Paul nor Coffeezilla has shed any further light on the matter.

Cointelegraph reached out to Logan Paul and Stephen "Coffeezilla" Findeisen for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

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Logan Paul threatens to sue Coffeezilla over CryptoZoo ‘scam’ allegations

YouTube boxer Logan Paul, who was spearheading the CryptoZoo NFT project, has accused Coffeezilla of publishing “defamation” about him and the project.

YouTuber Logan Paul has threatened to sue fellow YouTuber and internet detective Coffeezilla for defamation after he accused Paul’s CryptoZoo nonfungible token (NFT) project of being a “scam.”

The two have been battling back and forth on both social media and YouTube videos ever since Dec. 17, when Stephen Findeisen — also known as Coffeezilla — launched the first of a three-part video series attacking CryptoZoo and Paul, who was the face of the project.

“CryptoZoo was supposed to be a fun blockchain game that can earn you money [...] but millions of dollars of investor money later, things are still broken,” he said.

In his most recent response, Logan Paul published a YouTube video on Jan. 4 accusing the internet detective of having “led the charge to drive and monetize a narrative telling millions of people that I’m a fraud or I tried to scam my audience.”

He has also accused Coffeezilla of having done so without verifying any background information or substantiating any evidence, adding that he “took multiple criminals’ words as truth and broke laws, you still published the defamation,” adding:

“I’ll see you in court.”

CryptoZoo is an NFT game with the premise of allowing “ZooKeepers” to buy NFT eggs using the game’s native token, ZOO. These eggs would then be hatched into animals that can be bred to create hybrid animals.

The hybrids were intended to be tradeable and provide ZooKeepers with ZOO, with Paul describing the project in an Aug. 21, 2021, podcast as a “really fun game that makes you money.”

Additionally, Paul had suggested the art for the game would be “handmade” by 10 different artists over six months.

The hybrids were the focus of a Sept. 11, 2021, video from Coffeezilla in which he described the images as “a bunch of stock photos from Adobe that have been poorly photoshopped.”

However, the CryptoZoo blog has not published any new content since April 20, prompting some to believe that the development of the project has halted.

During Coffeezilla’s three-part series about CryptoZoo, the YouTuber interviewed purported investors of the project. One investor who claimed to still be holding eggs called on the CryptoZoo team to “reimburse those loyal fans they have or try to rebuild the project.”

Related: How NFT court summons could change the legal landscape

However, in his latest video, Paul said that they will “continue to build CryptoZoo,” sharing a teaser stating that it was coming in 2023/2024.

“Trust me, CryptoZoo is coming, I will make damn sure of it.”

Coffeezilla has continued to question the authenticity of these claims on Twitter.

Meanwhile, both Paul and Coffeezilla have called on each other to discuss the matter on their respective platforms, but both have yet to accept any of the invitations.

According to CoinMarketCap, the Zoo token has plummeted by 99.5% over the past year, despite some gains within the last week following recent media attention.

Paul had been an avid supporter of crypto and NFTs throughout 2021 and was a major promoter of the crypto token Dink Doink (DINK) prior to launching CryptoZoo. Dink Doink was also lambasted by Coffeezilla in a July 12, 2021 video.

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Blockchain community busts alleged $20M NFT drop scam before sale completion

Thanks to vigilant crypto enthusiasts, the alleged scammers were stopped dead in their tracks.

Late Wednesday, internet detective and Youtuber Coffeezilla published a new video documenting how he, along with members of the blockchain community, took down an alleged $20 million nonfungible tokens, or NFT, scam before it could come to fruition. As told by Coffeezilla, a lot of user hype previously existed for a novel crypto project called "Squiggles," which had an NFT drop scheduled for Feb. 10. At the time, Squiggles had amassed over 230,000 followers on Twitter.

Hours before the anticipated drop, an anonymous user published a 60-page report that alleged Squiggles' founders were paid puppets. At the same time, the real people behind the project allegedly belonged to a group of serial NFT scam artists operating under the umbrella name "NFT Factory LA." Coffeezilla narrates while citing the dossier:

"It meticulously documents allegations of NFT Factory LA, consisting of "Gavin, Gabe and Ali," behind not just Squiggles but several NFT scams. These include League of Sacred Devils, League of Divine Beings, Vault of Gyms, Sinful Souls, Dirty Dogs, Lucky Buddhas, and on and on"

The alleged series of scams did not go unnoticed; however, pretty soon, Gavin, Gabe and Ali were all doxed by angry crypto enthusiasts for orchestrating the alleged rug-pulls. As a result, they needed to hire "stooges" to carry out the work of future projects, such as Squiggles. However, before the night of the project's $20 million NFT drop, pictures circulated on Instagram allegedly showing the founder of Squiggles, Arsalan, and Gavin together in the same Rolls Royce.

"Basically, these guys churn out NFT projects that have the appearance of trust and quality. And then, after launching, it turns out, they're just cash grabs."

They later appeared at the same club holding a sign that said "Squiggles Boys," and then a photo surfaced with Gavin, Gabe, and Ali in the same photo at the same location. "Pretty quickly, people put two and two together," said Coffeezilla. Hours after launch, OpenSea delisted the project.

It appears the alleged scammers also tried to manipulate the volume of the NFT sale. As Coffeezilla uncovered:

"[Via EtherScan] A single account spent 800 ETH [$2.384 million], which is over $2 million spread across two transactions that created hundreds of new wallets. These shadow wallets then bought three Squiggles NFTs and immediately listed them on OpenSea for less money."

The YouTuber explained, "We don't know if this resulted in profits or losses, either way, they were stopped from making the $20 million they could have made, and that's good."  Coffeezilla is known in the blockchain community for exposing alleged scammers and alerting members to rug pulls. Earlier this month, he published an interview featuring disgraced Youtuber Ice Poseidon, who publicly refused to return investors' funds after an alleged $750 thousand decentralized finance rug pull. 

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