Logan Paul Claims CryptoZoo 'Isn't a Scam'; Here's a Look at the Controversial NFT Project

Famous YouTuber, WWE star, and social media celebrity Logan Paul is facing massive scam accusations regarding his infamous CryptoZoo non-fungible token (NFT) project. Paul has been accused of defrauding thousands of investors. In a new documentary featuring journalist Graham Besinger, Paul, the subject of a class action lawsuit,  addressed the fall of the project.

What is CryptoZoo and How Did it Start?

In 2021, when NFTs were making headlines, Paul capitalized on the trend with the Din-Donk token. Soon, in the fall, Paul began promoting his own NFT project, called CryptoZoo, which was seemingly inspired by Pokémon and marketed as a play-to-earn game.

Paul, one of the most famous influencers in the world, described CryptoZoo as a game where players could hatch and breed hybrid NFT animals that would gain in value over time.

Here’s How CryptoZoo worked

In his popular podcast Impulsive, Paul called CryptoZoo “a really fun game that makes you money.” In the game, collectors could purchase NFT eggs and hatch hybrid animals which were depicted by photoshopped pictures. These tokens were of penguin sharks, duck dogs, etc.

The users could then breed these hybrids among themselves to produce increasingly rare NFTs that would gain value. The system felt like it was inspired by PokemonGo and akin to Axie Infinity with the overarching theme of profitability.

Paul allegedly put $1 million of his own money into the game’s creation, and the first 10,000 NFTs (priced at 0.1 ETH each) introduced by the project sold out. However, the team leading the project hit several roadblocks.

CryptoZoo seemingly bit off more than it could chew, and its developers kept announcing delay after delay. Even after months of its announcement, the game never came to life.

At this time, even Paul had distanced himself from the project, and launched another NFT endeavor, 99Originals. However, people who had invested heavily in CryptoZoo felt cheated as the value of the NFTs plummeted to less than one-hundredth of their peak price in 2021, TIME reported.

The Fall of CryptoZoo

In December 2022, over a year after CryptoZoo’s announcement, YouTuber Stephen Findeisen aka Coffeezilla released a three-part series detailing the many promises made to the project’s collectors that developers never followed through.

He further reported on the supposed infighting and disagreement between the CryptoZoo founders, as per NFTNow. Findeisen even offered evidence that Paul and his team may have scammed investors which led to a short spat between him and Paul.

Months later in February 2023, attorneys from Ellzey & Associates and Attorney Tom & Associates filed a lawsuit seeking class action certification in the Western District of Texas against the founders of CryptoZoo including Paul, Danielle Strobel, Jake Greenbaum (Crypto King), and Ophir Bentov (Ben Roth) for the fiasco. The effort was spearheaded by prominent attorney and YouTuber Tom Kherkher aka AttorneyTom on YouTube.

With charges mounting and NFT values dropping, Paul announced a buyback program almost a year later in 2024. He promised to buy back the 1,000 ETH (around $1.3 million at the time) to those who lost money on the project. However, there was a catch as the people who received the refund were not allowed to sue Paul anymore.

Meanwhile, Paul launched a crossclaim suit of his own against two former colleagues and publicly claimed that he lost $2.3 million in the project and never made a penny from it.

Logan Paul’s Defense On The CryptoZoo Fiasco

In the recent documentary, titled “5 Months With Logan Paul, the YouTuber told Besinger that the NFT project was not a scam. While Paul admitted that the allegations had an element of truth, he stated that the project was not fraud, and instead, it was a project that he was “simply incapable” of taking on at the time.

In the documentary, Paul claims that he had no intention of defrauding investors and he trusted some “bad people”. He then goes on to blame two of the team’s members, Eddie Ibanez and Jake (The Crypto King).

He accuses Jake of stealing $6 million and Ibanez of stealing $1.2 from the project and telling leading him lies. He even says the two have been the subject of FBI investigations. At the end, Paul says, “We’ll see how he (Jake) fares” when all this is said and done”.