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."

The developer behind the NFT project, "Evil Ape," suddenly disappeared along with its Twitter account, website, and $2.7 million.

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.