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Why does the UK suddenly want to become a “crypto hub”? Hint: it has to do with the EU Apr 06, 2022

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This week, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak tweeted about payment regulation reform recognizing crypto stablecoins as a valid payment in the UK. In the same post, Sunak also linked a gov.uk page detailing other steps the government is taking to turn the UK into a “cryptoasset technology hub.” This includes: Legislating for a financial sandbox called “CryptoSprint,” which would be overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Developing a “Cryptoasset Engagement Group” as an interface between industry and government. Examining tax reforms that encourage competitiveness. Commemorating this new approach to digital assets by way of a specially commissioned NFT in conjunction with the Royal Mint. Given the uneasy relationship between the UK and crypto to date, the skeptical among you will wonder what’s going on. The UK is looking to crypto to regain a footing UK officials have generally taken a hostile stance towards crypto in the past. For example, as recently as December 2021, the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey reiterated comments that cryptocurrencies do not meet the definition of a currency, have no intrinsic value, and warned that investors could lose all their money. Addressing the Financial Policy Committee at that time, Bailey played down the significance of digital assets, saying they aren’t a risk today but could be in the future. “It probably isn’t a financial stability risk today but it has all the makings of something that could become one.” Then there’s the FCA, which has been accused of taking a draconian approach in dealing with Binance as it seeks to register with authorities. The FCA said its approach corresponded with Binance’s failure to respond to basic queries. However, in an apparent turnaround, Chancellor Sunak is now signaling a pro-crypto stance. He said the efforts are part of a plan to keep the UK financial industry “at the forefront of technology and innovation.” What’s more, Chancellor Sunak also spoke about attracting businesses and jobs through this policy change. “We want to see the businesses of tomorrow – and the jobs they create – here in the UK, and by regulating effectively we can give them the confidence they need to think and invest long-term.” The EU is closing its doors The UK financial services sector brought in £165 billion ($215.7 billion) in 2020, accounting for 9% of the country’s total economic output. The City of London is traditionally seen as one of the world’s leading financial centers. But leaving the EU on January 31, 2020, meant losing jobs and businesses to competing centers. While the UK government acknowledged this, it also diminished the effect by saying the impact may not be as significant as initially thought. “The data so far suggests that jobs and business has been lost to other financial centres as a result of the UK leaving the European single market, but the impact may not be as big as initially feared by some.” Nonetheless, Patrick Hansen, the Head of Strategy & Business Development at Unstoppable Finance, recently commented that this change from the UK government directly responds to anti-crypto sentiment coming from the EU. He thinks the UK “wants to outplay” the EU and scoop up all the capital flight that’s set to leave the region should proposals on unhosted crypto wallets get ratified in law. With Brexit, the EU lost its biggest financial hub, the city of London. Seems like the UK wants to outplay the EU with regards to crypto too. The timing of this, just a few days after heavy public backlash against an EU vote on crypto, is certainly not a coincidence.. Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) April 4, 2022

Corporate America flocks to the metaverse with a combined $1T valuation Apr 06, 2022

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Filings in 2022 indicate that one thing about the metaverse is that it will be well fed and well dressed. Companies with a combined market cap of around $1.1 trillion have filed for trademarks related to metaverse and NFTs this year alone. If you include Meta in this discussion, the figure rises to almost $2 trillion. In addition, 1967 NFT-related applications have been filed in 2022 alone. This is already higher than the total for the whole of 2021. However, as we are well aware of Meta’s plans due to their rebrand, so lets focus on the lesser-known metaverse players. Brands such as Ralph Lauren, Chevron, McDonald’s, Monster, Colgate, WWE, Levis, Playboy, and many more are gearing up to enter the metaverse and protect their intellectual property. For some, registering trademarks in a new space will be a simple legal exercise to ensure their corporate image is protected. However, it is clear from the filings that this is not just about brand protection. Here’s a breakdown courtesy of trademark lawyer Mike Kondoudis. You can read the specifics of the trademarks by searching for the serial numbers at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. McDonald’s McDonald’s is coming to the metaverse. We first reported on this back in February. McDonald’s filed to use the names McDonald’s, McCafe, and the famous golden arches with a virtual world. They also plan to offer actual and virtual goods through their virtual restaurants. Therefore, it seems that you will be able to walk into a McDonald’s in the metaverse, order a BigMac and have it sent to your door in the real world. Victoria’s Secret In February, the international lingerie, clothing, and beauty brand, Victoria’s Secret, filed for several trademarks, including downloadable virtual goods, digital collectibles, virtual fashion shows, and online clothing, including undergarments. This one feels very NSFW, in all honesty, but what’s interesting is that they see an opportunity and a need to ready themselves for a deeper move into the digital world. Post-2020, it is easy to understand the potential market for virtual fashion shows. However, virtual underwear is something metaverse developers themselves may not have considered quite yet. Chevron This is the biggest company outside of Meta to be readying themselves for the metaverse. They have a market cap of over $300 billion and filed for trademarks directly related to NFTs this year. Their application covers NFTs, virtual gas, virtual stores, and virtual renewable energy products. Virtual gas will likely be a tool to run v vehicles in the metaverse. However, I hope brands cannot get a consensus from blockchain validators to add sponsorship to gas transactions fees. Can you imagine every Ethereum transaction forcing a Chevron advert to your wallet? Monster Energy The drinks and beverages brand has often looked to be at the forefront of trends. So their move into the metaverse is less surprising than most. Like McDonald’s, they are looking to use their brand to offer NFTs, downloadable virtual food, drinks, and clothing and create a marketplace for virtual goods. With Death Stranding, Monster Energy has already found its way into the gaming world. In the game, Monster is the only source of boosting stamina in the main character’s private room. Perhaps we can now expect similar deals with metaverse projects. Other notable brands There seems to be a clear trend within the current trademark applications. Food and beverage brands are all filing to protect their ability to offer virtual restaurants and virtual food. In-game food often relates to health bonuses or regeneration. The ability to be a recognized option for a player to regain their health should offer immense brand awareness among popular games. Dunkin, KFC, Pizza Hut, Hooters, Sonic, Red Bull, Burger King, and Arby’s are all restaurants we can expect to see in what is increasingly likely to be a Ready Player One-style metaverse of the future. Another apparent trend is con...

Investors lose $20.7 million in Bored Bunny NFT promoted by multiple celebrities Apr 06, 2022

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Popular blockchain detective Zachbxt has revealed details about a possible rug pull that occurred on the Bored Bunny NFT collection, leading to the loss of around $20.7 million. According to Zachbxt, the project is a clear rug pull. His investigations reveal that the team behind it has been involved in other shady NFT projects in the past. But the past two, Ancient Cats Club and Crazy Camel, pale in value compared to this. The investigation also identified the three main people allegedly behind the project: Slavi Kutchoukov, Amir Adjaouti, and Remy Goma. The Bored Bunny slow rug pull The Bored Bunny NFT was announced in December 2021, with lots of promises. The developers claimed it to be a pfp project with 4999 NFT and a mint price of 0.4 ETH. The project became popular through marketing involving celebrities like Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul, David Dobrik, DJ Khaled, French Montana, and Chantel Jeffries. 4/ Here are all the marketing videos that were produced for BB: French Montana: David Dobrik: Chantel Jeffries: Floyd Mayweather (Two times): zachxbt (@zachxbt) March 31, 2022 The project launched with many promises and sold out within hours, with the team making 2000 ETH from primary sales alone. However, further analysis of the project by the pseudonymous bax1337 on Twitter revealed signs of insider trading. Bax, who works with Convex Labs, discovered that before the actual reveal, a dev wallet bought the Celeb/Influencer NFTs. Following the first mint, the team launched another collection tagged Bored Bad Bunny NFT. This contained 1111 NFTs and minted for 0.4 ETH too. The third collection, Bored Mutant Bunny, came out a few days after. It had 3000 NFTs and went for 0.25 ETH. Unlike the first two, it didn’t sell out as people were beginning to question what the developers were doing. The team’s undoing, however, was that most of the funds generated from minting went to multiple centralized exchanges such as Binance. A further look at the team’s history would reveal that they are not first-time offenders as they have been attached to other projects that had sour endings. Bored Bunny denies wrongdoing The official account of Bored Bunny has come out to deny this, claiming the reason for the lack of communication was due to receiving multiple emails. Hi Bored Bunny Members⁰Hope you are all well, I come back to you to give you some news about myself and some explications about the project. Primarily, the reason of my absence this last month was that I have been through a lot of the emails, messages in private. 1. BoredBunny (@BoredBunnyNFT) March 29, 2022 The team is now suggesting handing over the control of the project to a Discord Moderator, but the floor price of the project has fallen to 0.082 ETH on OpenSea. Per data from Nansen, one in three NFT collections ends up as a “dead” project due to little to no trading activity. The trading activity of the Bored Bunny collection seems to have stalled following the developer’s shady activities. However, the recent arrest of the masterminds behind the Frosties NFT rug pull opens a new frontier for investors looking to recoup their lost funds. Update: Slavi Kutchoukov has denied any association with the Bored Bunny project.

A New World Monetary Order is Emerging, and Bitcoin is Poised to Be a Part of It Apr 06, 2022

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It seems that the more intense the chaos, the deeper the changes emerge from it. In the present post-Covid-19 chaos of supply disruptions, 40-year high inflation rates, and a war in Europe—we seem to be on the brink of a major monetary pivot. To understand its implications and how digital assets fit into it, we first must revisit the previous reset. World War II as the First Great Reset As World War II chaos was coming to closure in July 1944, it birthed a new paradigm we still live in today. In the Bretton Woods mountain resort, 44 nations set up a new international monetary system. The arrangement was simple. As the economic and military powerhouse, the US would become the monetary center, as other nations would peg their currencies to the dollar. In turn, the dollar itself would be pegged to US gold reserves, at $35 per ounce. Other nations would then contract or expand their USD supply within the 1% range of the fixed-rate, as investors used forex brokers to exchange foreign currencies. President Richard Nixon abandoned the gold peg in 1971—and effectively the Bretton Woods system altogether—framing it as “There is no longer any need for the United States to compete with one hand tied behind her back.” Yet, the Bretton Woods legacy remained. Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have served as key cogs for the post-Bretton Woods era – the petro-dollar. The US as the World’s Money Controller President Nixon was correct in that the gold peg hobbled US expansion. On both sides of the equation, the gold peg has a number of issues: Because the money supply was constrained by a fixed exchange rate, so too were the government’s expansionary policies. These ranged from unemployment interventions to military spending. Furthermore, the gold peg was a double-edged sword. Although countries that pegged their currencies to the dollar ceded some of their domestic economic policies, they could also redeem dollars for gold. While the gold itself is rare and expensive to mine, its supply is not fixed. Even so, its supply doesn’t match up with the economic growth of the global economy. If a nation falls into a deficit, when the government’s income is lower than its spending, it has fewer options available to right the course around the recession storm. Altogether, it was the last point that made Nixon cut off the gold peg. He needed the Federal Reserve to provide an inexpensive money supply via lower interest rates. In this way, the economy would be flooded with cash, meaning it would grow sufficiently to offset a recession, regardless of the dollar being devalued in the process. Sound familiar? We have certainly seen record-high stock market gains thanks to the Fed’s injection of trillions of USD, which triggered a new era of retail traders using commission-free stock trading platforms. Needless to say, with the stabilizing gold peg gone, the 1970s were a period of the Great Inflation, just as appears to be happening now. Nonetheless, things would have been worse without the USD growing into its petrodollar status. In a nutshell, the USD has become the world’s global reserve currency because the US spends nearly as much on the military as the entire world. With influence over Europe stemming from WWII firmly entrenched and its control over the Gulf states, the US has been using the petrodollar as a vehicle to offset the downsides of unlocking its money supply and relentless spending. Both OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and non-OPEC nations, such as Russia and Qatar, have been using dollars to trade oil and gas. Such a system holds a glaring vulnerability that the West punctured this March, as it took unprecedented financial moves against Russia. New World Monetary Order Emerging As a nation with the world’s largest landmass, Russia holds an abundance of energy reserves. Accordingly, Russia’s main exports are energy-related products, at 63%, of which 26% and 12% constitute crude oil and gas, ...

This is why 2021 was crypto’s breakout year Apr 06, 2022

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The world is marching on toward the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. This is evident in almost every metric one can look at when analyzing the crypto market, even in volatile times and during sharp downturns. Venture capital investments in crypto have surpassed $30 billion, with more than $10.5 billion invested in the last quarter of 2021 alone. Alongside institutions, retail investors have also begun realizing the potential of crypto and are flocking to it in record numbers. To find out more about what makes the crypto market tick and get an understanding of the broad makeup of its participants, Gemini conducted an ambitious survey of 30,000 people across 20 countries. The survey explored awareness of cryptocurrencies and crypto companies, the motivations for buying and trading, as well as barriers to owning cryptocurrencies. What the survey found was that 2021 was crypto’s breakout year—there have never been more people entering the market, more people interested in entering the market, and more people realizing the potential of cryptocurrencies. Identifying crypto curiosity and crypto ownership While it’s easy to quantify current market performance, predicting its future performance depends on a multitude of factors—the biggest being its participants. Gemini set out to discover just how much untapped potential there is outside of the crypto market by surveying people about their general curiosity about cryptocurrencies. According to the report, 41% of its global respondents said that they were crypto-curious. This means that they currently don’t own cryptocurrencies but plan on buying in the next year. Diving deeper into the geographic makeup of the crypto-curious reveals that a significant number of them come from Europe. Ireland led among the crypto-curious, both globally and in Europe, with 58% saying they were interested in purchasing cryptocurrencies in the near future. A significant number of crypto-curious respondents came from Germany, Colombia, and the United Arab Emirates—53%, 50%, and 49%, respectively. The data shows that the majority of the crypto-curious come from developed nations with stable financial systems, with the exception of Colombia. This, however, isn’t the case when it comes to crypto ownership. Gemini’s data shows that the least amount of ownership comes from developed nations—15% in Denmark, 16% in France, 17% in Germany, 18% in Australia, 18% in the U.K., and 19% in Norway. The exceptions to the rule are Kenya and Colombia, where only 15% and 16% of respondents owned crypto. The largest crypto ownership was identified in Brazil and Indonesia, where 41% of respondents said they owned cryptocurrencies. Approximately a third of respondents from Singapore and the U.A.E. owned crypto, while the ownership decreased to around a quarter in Israel, Nigeria, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Mexico. Crypto is the future of money for many The extremely high rate of crypto ownership in certain countries can be attributed to several correlating factors. People in countries with the highest adoption and the highest percentage of crypto curiosity tend to see cryptocurrencies as the future of money. This is due to the fact that these countries have seen their national currencies devaluate against the dollar over the past decade, drastically affecting both the quality of life and financial stability. Respondents in countries with 50% or more devaluation against the dollar over the past 10 years were more than 5 times more likely to say they plan to purchase crypto in the coming year, compared to those who experienced less than 50% inflation. A significant number of respondents saw cryptocurrencies as a way to protect against inflation—46% of respondents in Latin America and Africa said they were looking into the asset class as a way to offset currency devaluation. In regions where the local currency hasn’t experienced significant long-term devaluation, respondents were far less likely to see cryptocurrencies as ...

Miami mayor reveals the formula for his city’s success as tech hub Apr 06, 2022

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Francis Suarez, Miami’s mayor, believes the city’s success as an upcoming tech hub is partially due to adopting crypto. He said this during an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Mornings with Maria on Monday. According to Suarez, crypto is part of Miami’s transitional brand from a city that was great to visit or retire to what Financial Times refers to as the most important city in America. He added that Miami has been leaning into innovation through crypto. In doing so, it has helped get rid of the notion that some specified cities are the technological hubs of the US. Suarez further noted that Miami has seen its venture capital increase by 200% year-over-year after embracing crypto. Moreover, this approach has helped the city move over $1 trillion in assets under management companies to its jurisdiction over the past 16 months. Bitcoin 2022 Suarez added that Miami now hosts the largest crypto conference, Bitcoin Conference, after positioning itself as a crypto-friendly city. Bitcoin 2022, this year’s event, will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The event commences tomorrow and will run through April 9. The conference will feature keynote speeches from speakers like Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, among others. Commenting on the event, which is just hours away, Suarez said, We are going to have 50,000 attendees and it’s going to be an economic development boom for our city, creating thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic incentives for our city. Suarez continues pushing for Miami to embrace crypto on a larger scale Suarez’s disclosure of the efforts that are helping shape Miami as a crypto hub comes as he continues advocating for the city to embrace crypto on a broader scope. As part of these efforts, he volunteered to become the first US politician to take his salary in Bitcoin (BTC). On top of this, he steered Miami toward launching MiamiCoin (MIA), the city’s native cryptocurrency, which seeks to fund municipal projects by generating additional yields. MIA generated a revenue of $21 million within the first three months of going live. Based on this performance, Suarez projected that the coin has the potential to rake in $80 million annually. As a result of MIA’s outstanding performance, Suarez recently said each Miami resident with a digital wallet would soon be eligible to receive BTC dividends earned through MIA.

U.S. prosecutors secures $34 million crypto assets forfeiture Apr 05, 2022

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The US Department of Justice had announced that it had secured the biggest cryptocurrency forfeiture after a South Florida resident forfeited $34 million worth of cryptocurrency tied to illegal dark web activities. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida filed the civil forfeiture complaint and were successful. US gets biggest crypto forfeiture This came after identifying the unnamed resident involved in the large-scale sale of illegal items on several dark web marketplaces. Not only that the person also hacked online account information of popular services such as Uber, Netflix, and HBO, among others. The statement from the DOJ further explained that the individual used The Onion Router (TOR) to access the Dark Web. They were able to hide the sources of the funds and almost launder successfully by using “tumblers,” which are cryptocurrency mixers. This, along with illegal money transmitters, made it possible for the person to perpetrate illegal activities. DOJ and other law enforcement agents show they can tackle crypto crimes While over 90% of crypto activities are legal, even if unregulated, many bad actors try to take advantage of the features that make crypto better. Also, the rise of ransomware attacks last year and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have led to an increased focus on crypto and its uses. Though the crypto community has assured that it would be almost impossible for Russia to circumvent the sanctions being imposed on it via crypto, law enforcement agencies and financial regulators, however, have chosen to intensify their efforts in policing the activities within the crypto space. This, inadvertently, would lead to a more secured and investor-friendly industry. Interestingly, the federal law agents recently arrested two men involved in the Frosties NFT rug pull and will be prosecuting them. Germany seizes Bitcoin tranche It’s not only the US that’s going after crypto linked to illegal activities. Just today, Germany announced that it has shut down the Russian darknet marketplace (DNM), Hydra, and seized Bitcoin worth $25 million. Hydra has been in existence since 2015 and per available data accounts for around 80% of the entire market share of DNMs. The marketplace has more than 19,000 vendors’ accounts selling everything from narcotics to fake identities to its 17 million customers. In 2020 alone, it had a trading volume of at least $1.2 billion. According to the BKA federal police, several institutions including US agencies were involved in the investigation which started in August 2021.

Senator Lummis says Bitcoin is a commodity and will become a currency soon Apr 05, 2022

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The U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, recently championed Bitcoin as a future currency in an interview. The interview started with the question, “Is Bitcoin a currency or commodity?” Senator Lummis quickly and confidently responded: “I own [Bitcoin], a commodity. I believe it will be currency someday, but at this point of its existence, it’s a commodity just like cattle, wheat, and gold. At some point, it’s going to become a means of payment.and it’s going to happen really fast.” To explain her confidence, Lummis referred to the launch of the Bitcoin payment protocol, Lightning Network. She noted that Bitcoin came out of a whitepaper that didn’t include means of payment. Lightning Network filled the gap by providing a payment method for Bitcoin which should lead to further innovation in the payment space. Is it a currency if it’s denominated in U.S. dollars? Following up on Lummis’ arguments, NBC News political director and moderator of “Meet the Press” reports Chuck Todd said that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are denominated in U.S. dollars, and therefore they would not be able to behave as currencies. In response, Lummis claimed that Chris Giancarlo intentionally made this denomination during his tenure as the Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to protect the US dollars’ international status. Lummis said: “[Giancarlo] Wisely recognized that we want to see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be denominated in US dollars.I think that’s tremendously important because we want the US dollar to continue to be the global currency.” How does it get regulated? Accepting the duality, Todd later asked about the suitable regulatory approach to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Lummis, again, confidently argued that it would be regulated both as a commodity and a stock. She said that such a regulatory suggestion had been made in the bill drafted by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and herself and would be presented in April. She added that: “It will be regulated by both, just the way current traditional assets are. CFTC will regulate it as a commodity, [and it] will also have spot markets and futures markets. The SEC [the US Securities and Exchange Commission] side will regulate for consumer protection and other necessary regulations to make sure purchasers are not subject to fraud.” She also said that their bill included a method to prevent projects from being shut down due to fear of the unknown. According to Lummis, the new bill will also suggest creating a regulated sandbox environment to allow people to build and innovate freely.

Binance CEO says Russia cannot use crypto to evade sanctions Apr 05, 2022

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Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, commonly referred to as CZ, believes Russia cannot use cryptocurrencies to circumvent western sanctions. He said this during a recent interview with Richard Quest, the host of CNN’s Quest Means Business. According to him, crypto is too traceable, a trait that makes it unsuitable for dodging sanctions. Zhao pointed out that governments across the globe are increasingly getting better at tracing crypto transactions. To this end, he believes an intelligent person would not try to use crypto for such purposes. Nonetheless, he said Binance observes the sanction rules closely and will block anyone on the sanction list. CZ added that Binance would also block the accounts of anyone that is remotely related to the people on the sanction list. However, he asserted that Binance considers freezing assets of normal Russian users illegal. As such, the exchange will stand by its decision not to ban all Russians. To show the organization’s willingness to adhere to rules, CZ said it is up to the governments to decide whose assets Binance should freeze or unfreeze. Standing up against the war, not the people Unlike many organizations unwilling to take a stand on whether Russia was wrong for invading Ukraine, CZ said Binance is against the war and the politicians that started it. He reiterated that Binance is not against the people because the war has impacted both Ukrainians and Russians. According to him, Binance seeks to help these people overcome their difficulties. Touting the firm’s efforts of helping those in need, he pointed out that Binance was among the first companies to pledge $10 million to aid Ukrainian refugees. CZ added that Binance has already given out most of this amount. This news comes after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange would not preemptively ban all Russian users. In a March 4 tweetstorm, Armstrong said Coinbase believes everyone deserves access to financial services unless the law says otherwise. He added that, Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too. That said, if the US government decides to impose a ban, we will of course follow those laws.

Famous French influencer masterminds $960k NFT rug pull Apr 05, 2022

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Popular on-chain sleuth, Zachxbt, has revealed information about another rug pull in the non-fungible token scene. In a Twitter thread, he exposed how French influencer and reality TV star Laurent Correira allegedly played a major role in the Billionaire Dogs Project. Billionaire Dog NFT rug pull The project launched in December 2021 with promotions from various influencers, including Correira, promising giveaways, and luxury cars to investors. Initially, it was meant to be a collection of 6500 NFTs selling for 0.1 ETH presale and 0.2 ETH public sales. 1/ Time for another $960k NFT rug this time involving Laurent Correia a popular French influencer with a reality TV show. zachxbt (@zachxbt) April 4, 2022 But the low interest in it meant they had to reduce the supply to 2000 NFTs. However, a week after the minting, the website and Discord server was deleted, and the team disappeared. If any hope of tracking the $960k proceeds from the project looked to have disappeared, Correira himself revived it. On-chain data reveals that Correira received more than $400k of the money in his public wallet. It was easy to trace this because he used the same wallet to buy NFTs, including a Mutant Ape, Doodle, and CloneX. He even posted the purchase on his social media while changing his Instagram profile picture to the NFT. Correira appears to be based in Dubai based on his social media activity and Zachxbt has tagged the Dubai Police on Twitter to bring him to justice. But the possibility of this remains slim, given the unregulated nature of NFTs. Was Correira more than an Influencer? This event again brings to the fore the need for regulations, especially for NFTs. In recent months, several influencers and celebrities have been involved in promoting NFT projects that eventually rug pulled. The prevalent use of influencer marketing by crypto projects explains why some countries, including Australia, are trying to regulate financial influencers. While Zachxbt might have exposed the entire project as a rug pull, previous revelations suggest that Correira was more of a mastermind than an influencer. As far back as January, a Dubai businessman named Mohammed Amin revealed the scam in an interview. Then, he accused Correira of deceiving him and other investors who bought the NFTs based on several promises. Correira, it was said, used his flashy social media life to lure them in, claiming that renowned personalities like Kanye West and Lebron James were involved. But he soon disappeared with their $500,000 worth of crypto invested into the project. Since then, Amin claimed that he, along with other victims, has been gathering evidence so they can file an action in the UAE. The new information from Zachxbt could further help their case.

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