In January, Logan Paul said he would burn his ZOO tokens and commit $1.8 million to refund buyers of his NFT game project. What happened?
In April, Paul denied any wrongdoing in correspondence with Rolling Stone and said that “all deserving parties will be reimbursed.”
But in messages viewed by Decrypt, more than six individuals in CryptoZoo’s Discord server reported not receiving any refund that had been promised—six months after the promise was made.
A CryptoZoo buyer who goes by the alias Just Pixel told Decrypt in a message that they had also not received any refund, or any updates on when such a reimbursement would be coming.
“I have invested a total [of] ~$15K. I was able to get just under $2K out before the price dropped completely to the floor,” Just Pixel said. “I did not get a refund. I also bought three of these egg NFTs at launch. I haven't gotten a refund for those yet either.”
In a Discord server called “CryptoZoo Victims,” three more individuals confirmed to Decrypt that no refunds have yet been issued.
But CryptoZoo’s buyers aren’t the only ones who claim they haven’t been paid by Paul. Zach Kelling, CryptoZoo engineer and first CTO, told Decrypt in January that he is still owed over $1 million in fees for his work, which he said he completed with a team of 45 engineers.
Kelling previously told Decrypt that Paul’s YouTube videos about him even led to “life and death risks” and physical safety threats for himself and his family.
Kelling’s fiancée Antje Worring started her own spinoff philanthropy project, Zoo Labs, after they figured that Paul wasn’t going to pay Kelling for the work he did for CryptoZoo.
Logan Paul really is the type of dude to thank you when you expose his scam, then block you when you remind him to pay up. pic.twitter.com/wI1o3ilD5S
— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) June 30, 2023
“There were so many lies,” Worring told Decrypt.
She alleged that CryptoZoo developer Eddie Ibanez allowed her and Kelling to live in a Manhattan apartment that Ibanez claimed he owned, but actually didn’t, adding that Ibanez once screamed at her because she hadn’t done his laundry for him. Worring further claimed that Ibanez paid Kelling only about $2,000 in total for his work on CryptoZoo.
Decrypt reached out to Ibanez for comment, but he did not immediately respond.
Worring said Paul’s interaction with the CryptoZoo developers was minimal, even when the project was in full swing.
“He’s just the face of the project,” Worring said of Paul. “We literally never heard from him.”
The third promise
But what about the CryptoZoo game itself—is it still in development? The game’s official website still shows the same “builders build” screen from 2022. CryptoZoo hasn’t posted via its Discord, Twitter, or Instagram since the January assertion that game development would continue—and its blog has been radio silent for over a year.
“Absolutely nothing has happened since Logan Paul promised a refund,” CryptoZoo Victims Discord member Richie650 told Decrypt. “No token burn, no refund, and no game development.”
While Paul may be unresponsive to his community, he has responded to the ongoing CryptoZoo lawsuit against him.
The lawsuit filed against Paul and other members of the CryptoZoo team back in February is ongoing. According to court documents, Texas-based CryptoZoo buyer Don Holland and his counsel allege that Paul and the CryptoZoo team committed fraud via a “rug pull” and defrauded “thousands of other consumers” by failing to deliver the game.
Paul responded in May and June with the argument that because he does not live in Texas, there is a lack of “personal jurisdiction” and the case should be dismissed. However, plaintiffs have since argued that two of CryptoZoo’s former employees were located in Texas, and that Ibanez also conducted some CryptoZoo work in Texas.
Paul, Levin, and their representatives did not respond to Decrypt’s multiple requests for comment on the ZOO token burn, the promised reimbursements, or the future of CryptoZoo.
Does Paul’s six-month silence betray a lack of interest in the embroiled project? Or has he merely pressed pause on CryptoZoo due to the ongoing lawsuit?
For now, CryptoZoo holders will have to wait—and hope for a refund that remains in limbo.