The YouTuber Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen accuses the 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 claimed to have been working on for half a year and into which he had already invested a million dollars.
Logan Paul apparently dropped the project later, after his fans had invested several million dollars.
Between December 17 and December 23, 2022, investigative YouTuber Coffeezilla published a three-part video series in which he aimed to investigate the story behind CryptoZoo. In the videos, he compiled all the allegations against the project and Logan Paul and spoke with affected individuals.
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 were to act as in-game currency. Then, with the coins, they could acquire egg NFTs.
The eggs were supposed to hatch into various animals, which players could then combine into new hybrid animals. The rarer a hybrid, the more ZooCoins players were to receive daily, allowing them to invest in new eggs or withdraw their money.
CryptoZoo was apparently inspired by the extremely successful NFT game “Axie Infinity”, where players also breed “Pokémon”-like creatures.
Fans of Logan Paul invest millions of $ in a game that isn’t a game
What allegations are there? The issue had a catch: only the first part of the supposed game worked. Players could buy coins and receive NFT images of eggs in return, but that was about it. The hatching and let alone cashing out were apparently never properly implemented.
Fans of Logan Paul had already invested millions of dollars prior to the game’s launch. Coffeezilla spoke with some affected individuals who admitted to investing amounts between $7,000 and around $340,000 without being able to withdraw a cent.
Apparently, they had trusted that Logan Paul had changed since his earlier scandals. They viewed the project as a way for everyday people to invest in cryptocurrency and benefit from the boom.
Were there more opaque methods? Besides the scam allegations, things were supposedly more amiss with CryptoZoo.
- The alleged “handcrafted artworks” in the game were only stock photos of animals that were halfheartedly cobbled together.
- Additionally, developers for CryptoZoo were reportedly never paid.
- Behind the scenes, there were supposed to be quarrels and disagreements between Logan Paul and his team.
You can watch the first part of Coffeezilla’s video series here in English. There is also Part 2 and Part 3 available on his YouTube account.
First distract, then limit damage
How did Logan Paul respond to the allegations? He apparently tried to silence them first. On Twitter, Logan Paul posted about everything possible, just not about his apparent crypto scam. But the fans did not let him get away with it.
- On December 23, Logan Paul shared an emotional message he claimed to have received from a supposed fan on an airplane.
- However, in the comments of the post, it was mainly about CryptoZoo, Coffeezilla, and the people who lost their money through Logan Paul (via Twitter).
Eventually, Logan Paul could no longer ignore the allegations and released a statement on Twitter on December 24. In the post, the influencer stated that he respects Coffeezilla’s work, but this was not the truth.
Additionally, Logan Paul announced that he would expose the “bad apples” and hold them accountable when it was “appropriate.” On January 3, he will elaborate on this in his podcast IMPAULSIVE. (via Twitter).
Logan Paul prefers to play dress-up rather than care
What is the current situation? Logan Paul’s announcement could not calm the tempers. In the comments on Twitter, many users accuse him of having ignored the topic for as long as possible and blocking people who wanted to talk about it.
Coffeezilla also remains unfazed by Logan Paul’s intentions. It is by no means the “appropriate time” that Paul spoke of, but merely good old damage control, says the YouTuber.
Coffeezilla also accuses Logan Paul of only caring about his own reputation and not about the victims of the scam who lost their money (via Twitter).
How does the story continue now? On December 27, Logan Paul announced via Twitter that he had invited Coffeezilla to his podcast to discuss CryptoZoo. However, he explained that he had already invited Paul to his own show the day before, after the latter had already declined several invitations for a conversation.
Coffeezilla suggests streaming a possible conversation between the two as a livestream and donating the proceeds of the stream to the victims of CryptoZoo. It remains to be seen whether and in what form the conversation will take place.
However, confidence in Logan Paul’s sincerity seems to be minimal. Many see it merely as an attempt to save his own skin.
Regarding Logan Paul’s most recent Twitter post, in which he apparently dressed up as Coffeezilla to investigate against himself, YouTuber Coffeezilla writes that it is the funniest thing he has 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 remains open, but it seems rather unlikely.
NFTs have been spreading in gaming since 2021. Even though CryptoZoo is probably a particularly devastating example of the trend, it is far from the only game that relies on digital collectibles. You can read here about what happens when such a game shuts down:
Players invest over 260,000 euros in an NFT game that is now closing – What happens to the money?
