YouTuber Apologises For Failed NFT Project CryptoZoo

Popular YouTuber Logan Paul has apologised to those who invested in a cryptocurrency-based project called CryptoZoo he launched and then apparently abandoned, following an investigation by a YouTube reporter.

Paul, who has 28 million subscribers on YouTube, plus another 24.6 million on Instagram and 16.6 million on TikTok, launched CryptoZoo in August 2021 in the midst of a boom in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital certificates of ownership based on crypto blockchain technology.

“It’s so fun. It provides a yield with a token… I think my game is going to make some waves,” Paul said at the time.

A now-deleted description on the game’s website describes it as an “autonomous ecosystem” that allows players to “buy, sell, and trade exotic animals and hybrids”.

Crypto crash

But in 2022 cryptocurrencies declined dramatically in value, as did interest in NFTs.

Meanwhile, more than a year after its launch no playable CryptoZoo features have appeared.

In response to an investigation by a YouTube cryptocurrency scam investigator, Paul said in a statement on the CryptoZoo Discord messaging server that he would be “taking accountability, apologising, and coming forward with a plan in the near future”.

Investigator Stephen Findelsen, known on YouTube as Coffeezilla, published a three-part investigation into CryptoZoo last month, calling it a “scam”.

He spoke to investors who claimed to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on CryptoZoo.

‘Conmen’

A 34-year-old US man told the BBC he had spent $40,000 (£33,000) on NFT eggs in the game after hearing Paul talk about CryptoZoo on his podcast, Impaulsive.

Last week Paul published an angry video in rebuttal to Findelsen’s investigation, claiming he had hired “conmen” and “felons” to run the project and that they were at fault.

But on Saturday he deleted the video and apologised to Findelsen. So far no further details have emerged about how he plans to reimburse investors or relaunch CryptoZoo.

Last year the cryptocurrency world was shaken by a number of high-profile bankruptcies, most recently that of FTX, which had been one of the biggest crypto exchanges.