Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather has been caught up promoting a scam NFT project on his social media channels again. Some investors are still not wise to his antics as the anonymous team behind his new project Mayweverse, has vanished with almost $200,000 in proceeds.
Mayweather has priors in the NFT rug pull game, having lent his name and profiting tens of millions from projects like Ethereum Max, Bored Bunny, Real Floyd NFT, Moonshot, etc. All of which now have near-zero values with no updates from the dev teams since mint. His latest project Mayverse launched on April 13, and only managed to rake in less than $200,000. The development team has now vanished with the money, leaving Mayweather once again promoting very dodgy projects.
There is the argument that Floyd Mayweather was duped somehow into supporting these projects. Perhaps his knowledge of the NFT space is low? However, the repetitive nature of his actions suggests otherwise. Another thing to bear in mind is that Mayweather is one of the most lucrative pay-per-view attractions of all time, in any sport.
Lots of misery and fans left empty handed
Twitter observer ZachXBT dived in headfirst and received a personal message from Mayweather, as seen above, after linking the development team behind the latest escapade to three other rug pulls. Here’s how it went down.
On April 21, just eight days after mint, the proceeds of the Mayweverse NFT drop were transferred over to two wallets. The diagram provided by the willing blockchain detective posted on Twitter shows the money trail. Interestingly, some of the same wallets implicated in other projects supported by Mayweather show up.
After the mint ended, the official Twitter page for the Mayweverse, which has more than 16,000 followers, posted a tweet. They asked people to join the Discord channel for further updates and said that the big reveal would happen soon. It’s worth mentioning this was the last ever tweet sent from that account.
Heading over to the official Discord, we see more misery as members repeatedly ask for updates with no response. Some holders were also entitled to receive signed gloves, while two holders are supposed to win an all-inclusive trip to Floyd’s upcoming fight on May 14, yet there’s no word. However, Mayweather responded to a few people’s angry messages, stating that they were not being scammed. The simple wording of this reply would appear to show that it’s not Mayweather behind the keyboard.
Before launching Mayweverse, the semi-retired boxer deleted all his tweets about another NFT project, RealFloydNFT. He abandoned this project earlier. Amazingly, the team for that project didn’t even know about Mayweverse.
Floyd flips the script
Amidst all this, if you search Floyd Mayweather’s NFT news right now, many would be surprised to see that he’s not keeping a low profile. Not at all, as he will be centrally involved in a high-profile series of events for semi-retired iconic athletes using NFTs as tickets and reward tools. Floyd Mayweather is fighting in the Global Titans Fight Series, a new boxing and MMA fight series featuring semi-retired icons. The expertise for NFTs in the project comes from MintGate, which also works with the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Tickets will be purchased through the NFT marketplace Rarible and sold as NFTs, giving access to an online platform where ticket holders can find exclusive content and watch a live stream of the fight. The project is also looking to structure a reward scheme through a collection of tickets as NFTs. This is presumably the fight for which two lucky Mayweverse NFT holders were supposed to get access. Better luck next time.
What we learn
With any growth phase comes hype. With hype come opportunists, and behind them, we find eager participants in a world where million-dollar NFT sales are splashed across media headlines every week. The chance to potentially turn a profit and even get rich is just too big a pull for some to resist.
Celebrity endorsement has proven to be a dangerous tool used by projects to lure people in while using the strength of a personal brand. Arguably people are judging the project based on the advocate. Mayweather’s case shows that while some of us in the space know all about his priors, others don’t.
Further proving that while Web3 is exciting and full of opportunity, it comes with associated risks that new entrants should not underestimate. Moreover, the current climate for NFTs is now more educated than 12 months ago. There is far more education and guidance content and several tools to analyze NFT markets, sales, and outlook. Furthermore, Ethereum has dominated the NFT landscape for most of this hype cycle, but data suggests more bubbles could be forming on other networks.
Recent acts of kindness by leading NFT players Yuga Labs refunding millions in failed gas transaction fees for its recent Otherside land sale provide a benchmark for other projects serious about longevity to adhere to. At the same time, mandatory KYC procedures for buyers of land plots showed their willingness to work within regulatory frameworks. They again lay the foundations for how other projects may need to act to attract eyeballs in the future.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
