Logan Paul is launching a buyback program to refund users who were scammed by his failed CryptoZoo game, committing more than $2.3 million to buy back Base Eggs and Base Animals at their original purchase price, and has also filed a lawsuit against his former business partners whom he blames for the game’s failure.
Logan Paul is on a mission. He’s trying to fix the mess from a botched cryptocurrency game. This debacle ended up with a class-action lawsuit against him and his ex-business partners.
On Thursday, Paul, a 28-year-old social influencer, boxer, and WWE superstar, made an announcement. He’s launching a new buyback program for his CryptoZoo game. In this game, users could purchase and hatch “egg NFTs”. These eggs would then reveal a collectible animal.
Paul had initially marketed CryptoZoo as a “game that earns you money”. But, an online investigation exposed several issues with the program. This led to a lawsuit filed in Federal court in Texas.
Paul had promised to “make things right” in a video he posted in response to the allegations. Now, almost a year later, he’s making good on his promise. He’s launching a buyback program to refund users who were scammed.
“Today, I am incredibly happy to announce that I am delivering on my promise to buy back Base Egg and Base Animal CryptoZoo NFTs for their original purchase price,” Paul tweeted. He added that the buy-back program is being carried out at http://EGGNFTBUYBACK.COM. Claims can be submitted through this site until February 8.
Paul approached the CryptoZoo project with passion and good intentions. He didn’t make a single penny from the project. In fact, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to make it happen. With this buy-back program, he’s personally committing more than $2.3 million to buy back Base Eggs and Base Animals from every person who intended to play CryptoZoo.
He expressed his disappointment that the game was not delivered. He blamed bad actors for derailing CryptoZoo. These bad actors stole money and betrayed the team while internally sabotaging the game. This has been confirmed by an extensive investigation involving a forensic analysis of blockchain activity and the review of thousands of communications.
Because cryptocurrency prices fluctuate and aren’t regulated, Paul’s original plan to repay users through his own crypto investment wouldn’t match what players initially paid to invest in the game. This led to public outcry about users still losing considerable money on their investments. This outcry led to Paul’s plans for the buyback program at the original prices paid.
As part of his statement, Paul revealed that he’s filed a separate lawsuit against his former business partners. He blames them for the myriad of issues surrounding the CryptoZoo launch. The lawsuit was filed in Texas with Paul named as the plaintiff against defendants Eduardo Ibanez and Jake Greenbaum. He called them both “con artists” who “lied about their résumés, knowledge, experience, and intentions”.
The lawsuit accuses Ibanez and Greenbaum of “fraud and deceit”. It states that Paul never made any profit off the game. “This lawsuit is not based just on snippets of conversations taken out of context,” Paul said. “This lawsuit is the result of an exhaustive investigation that included the review of the entirety of conversations and tracking nefarious trading activity related to the project.”
With the buyback program in place, Paul confirmed that the CryptoZoo game is dead and buried. It will not be launched again as he once hoped. “As far as the game itself, unfortunately it will not be released,” Paul said. He personally spent $400,000 to have it developed. After its completion in early 2023 and some further diligence, there were too many regulatory hurdles. These hurdles would delay the buy-back even further.
“This buy-back is a way for me to make whole those who intended to play CryptoZoo. The buy-back is not intended to compensate those who gambled on the crypto market and lost. The Zoo Token was created to support the CryptoZoo game and its players; it was not intended as an investment vehicle,” Paul clarified. He thanked everyone for their patience as they figured out the logistics of making sure the first ever NFT buy-back is a smooth process.