Crypto freaks are like religious cultists who refuse to believe they are in a cult: "Even though the money is gone, the Evolved Apes community plans to carry on."
Evolved Apes is described on NFT marketplace OpenSea as "a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs trapped inside a lawless land." They are "fighting for survival, only the strongest ape will prevail," it says, referring to the project's much-hyped fighting game, which has not materialized.
A week after the project launch, the anonymous developer known as Evil Ape who promised that game vanished along with the project's official Twitter account and website. But they left traces behind on the blockchain that shows they siphoned 798 ether ($2.7 million) out of the project's funds in multiple transfers. The funds, derived from the initial public sale of NFTs and commissions on the secondary market, were meant for project-related expenses like marketing.
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Even though the money is gone, the Evolved Apes community plans to carry on. Unlike with cryptocurrencies, NFT rug pulls leave behind JPEGs and a narrative surrounding them. Mike_Cryptobull explained in the report that he and others would build a new project called Fight Back Apes out of the ashes of Evolved Apes. Evolved Apes holders would be automatically approved for a Fight Back Apes token linked with the art from the old project.
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None of this has put a serious damper on the Evolved Apes trade on OpenSea, where the project is still verified. There have been over 574 NFT sales with a total volume of 13.9 ether ($47,230) since Friday, when the rug-pull became public.
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Two golden rules of crypto also apply here, said Mike_Cryptobull: do your own research, and don't invest anything more than you can afford to lose.
The NFT thing mystifies me. I don't approve of rich people buying art just so they can show off that they bought it. But at least some of time they actually like it. And the art is physical objects that they can have around and enjoy as art.
But the NFT cultists perplex me. They can't show off the "art" that they own. They're trying to monetize shitty JPGs. And on top of that - they don't care at all that their fetish items aren't even remotely artistic. They're simultaneously saying that they don't care if their investment crashes and they don't care about the art. Yet they buy and trade that shit anyway. Why?
It seems to me to be a bizarre digital form of a cargo cult.
I was going to make fun of him for not improving his artistic skills even though he's been a cartoonist for decades. But I just looked at his Twitter account and I have to say I like this one from two days ago. Is he actually getting better?
art has become financial instruments, so now financial instruments must become art
this is balance in hell world
and all these different "brands" of procedurally generated NFTs all have the exact same formula. It is genuinely mystifying.
We will play a tiny violin for any rich guy who won't even care if he loses it all - with an NFT investment of $10k or $100k or even more. What does he care? It's just a game to him.
"Get rich quick" scams have surely existed since shortly after money was invented and lots of small investors buying NFTs are going to get hosed. They view NFTs as different from a scam because it's high tech and it's digital.
If we could talk to those small investors - they'd puff out their chests and say they're going to be proven right. They're going to make money. And we'll be jealous.
The situation reminds me of a quote that's not about grifting but I think it does express the wishful thinking that's in play here...