YouTuber Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen accuses influencer Logan Paul of promoting a crypto scam and costing his fans thousands of dollars.
In August 2021, the controversial YouTuber Logan Paul announced a new project in his podcast IMPAULSIVE: the game CryptoZoo, which he is said to have been working on for half a year and into which he has already invested a million dollars.
Logan Paul later apparently dropped the project after his fans invested several million dollars.
Between December 17th and 23rd, 2022, investigative YouTuber Coffeezilla released a three-part video series in which he wanted to get to the bottom of the CryptoZoo story. In the videos, he compiled all the allegations against the project and Logan Paul and spoke to those affected.
NFT is the new trend in gaming, companies are worth billions of dollars – but why?
Logan Paul and his Crypto game
What is CryptoZoo? CryptoZoo was supposed to be a “really fun” play-to-earn game: players could buy the crypto currency ZooCoins, which should act as in-game currency. Egg NFTs could then be purchased with the coins.
Different animals should then hatch from the eggs, which players should be able to combine into new hybrid animals. The rarer a hybrid, the more ZooCoins players should receive daily to invest in new eggs or cash out.
CryptoZoo was apparently based on the extremely successful NFT game “Axie Infinity”, where players also breed “Pokémon”-like creatures.
Logan Paul fans invest millions of dollars in a game that isn’t a game at all
What allegations are there? However, there was a catch: Only the first part of the supposed game worked. Players could buy coins and get NFT images of eggs, but that was the end of it. Hatching, let alone cashing out, has apparently never been properly implemented.
Logan Paul fans had already invested millions of dollars before the game was launched. Coffeezilla spoke to some of those affected who admitted to investing between $7,000 and the equivalent of approximately $340,000 without being able to cash out a penny.
Apparently they had trusted that Logan Paul had changed since his previous scandals. They saw the project as a way for ordinary people to invest in cryptocurrency and benefit from the boom.
Were there other obscure methods? In addition to the scam allegations, CryptoZoo is said to have been in trouble even more.
You can watch the first part of Coffeezilla’s video series here in English. Part 2 and Part 3 are also available on his YouTube account.
First distract, then damage limitation
How did Logan Paul react to the allegations? He probably tried to hush her up at first. On Twitter, Logan Paul posted about everything but his apparent crypto scam. But the fans didn’t let him get away with it.
Eventually, Logan Paul couldn’t ignore the allegations any longer and released a statement on December 24th on Twitter. In the post, the influencer explained that while he respects Coffeezilla’s work, this is not the truth.
In addition, Logan Paul announced that he would expose the “black sheep” and hold them accountable when it was “appropriate”. On January 3rd he will give more details on his podcast IMPAULSIVE. (via Twitter).
Logan Paul would rather play dress up than care
What is the current situation? Logan Paul’s announcement failed to calm tempers. In the comments on Twitter, many users accuse him of ignoring the topic for as long as possible and blocking people who wanted to talk about it.
Coffeezilla is also unimpressed by Logan Paul’s plans. It’s by no means the “appropriate time” Paul was talking about, just good old damage control, according to the YouTuber.
Coffeezilla also accused Logan Paul of only caring about his own reputation and not the scam victims who lost their money (via Twitter).
How does the story continue now? On December 27th, Logan Paul announced via Twitter that he had invited Coffeezilla to his podcast to talk about CryptoZoo. However, he explained that he had already invited Paul to his own show the day before, after he had already turned down several invitations to an interview.
Coffeezilla suggests live streaming a possible conversation between the two and donating proceeds from the stream to CryptoZoo victims. It remains to be seen whether and in what form the conversation will take place.
However, hardly anyone seems to have confidence in Logan Paul’s sincerity. Many just see an attempt to pull his head out of the noose.
YouTuber Coffeezilla wrote that Logan Paul’s latest Twitter post, in which he apparently disguised himself as Coffeezilla to apparently investigate himself, is the funniest thing he’s seen this year. He can’t wait for Logan Paul to find out he’s innocent.
Whether there will be legal consequences for Logan Paul is still open, but it seems unlikely.
NFTs have been in gaming since 2021. While CryptoZoo is arguably a particularly devastating example of the trend, it’s far from the only game to capitalize on the digital collectibles. You can read here what happens when such a game closes its gates:
Players Invest Over €260,000 In NFT Game Now Closing – What Happens To The Money?