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Alpha Schedule #6 - 👮 Frosties creators charged with Fraud after rug pull

Alpha Schedule #6 - 👮 Frosties creators charged with Fraud after rug pull
By AMERICANxRADASS • Issue #6 • View online
*Read this newsletter on the web for the best experience*
Hi, Alphas!
I know it has been only a few days since I sent our previous newsletter, but the NFT scene has been very active since. Here are my favorite items from this week:
  • 👮 Frosties rug pull founders were charged with wire fraud
  • 🐱 Cool Cats signs with CAA for licensing
  • 💃🏻 Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week is happening
  • 💰 Yuga Labs valued at $4B
  • 👟 Adidas unveiled new plans in regards to their NFT pass
  • 🤝 Coolman’s Universe has partnered with Crocs
  • 👩 World of Women is releasing Galaxy tomorrow
  • 🐵 Madonna has acquired a Bored Ape
  • 📈 Market manipulation in Yuga Labs acquisition?
  • 📝 Google sheets social engineering attack wipes wallet
  • …
And on a more personal level:
So definitely worth reading through the newsletter - let’s jump right in :-)
P.S.: Tomorrowland was generous enough to expand our allowlist for their NFT from 30 to 150 spots, so if you’ve received an email from webmaster@tomorrowland.com, you’re in.
— 🩸💀 AMERICAN RADASS

👮 FROSTIES CREATORS CHARGED WITH FRAUD
Frosties Art Example
Frosties Art Example
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Frosties creators Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna with fraud. They reportedly defrauded investors of $1.1 million through their scheme.
The DOJ says that the two individuals carried out a “rug pull” while selling their NFTs. The creators sold tokens featuring ice cream-themed collectible characters with various attributes. Investors would have been able to earn cryptocurrency through staking and breeding. They would have gained access to a broader metaverse game.
However, the two creators did not did deliver the benefits and rewards that they initially advertised. After the Frosties NFTs sold out, the creators deactivated the project’s website and sent the money they earned to their own cryptocurrency wallets. [CryptoBriefing]
🐱 COOL CATS SIGNS WITH CAA FOR LICENSING
Cool Cats, the producers behind the NFT collection that counts Reese Witherspoon, Marc Benioff, and Alexis Ohanian as owners, has signed with American Talent and Sports Agency CAA.
The collection was first launched last July, and since then, sales of the collection’s avatars have amounted to roughly $250 million.
With CAA, the producers of Cool Cats and its spinoffs Cool Pets will look to expand the use of the characters across licensing and merchandising, animated content, brand partnerships, live events, and publishing. [Hollywood Reporter]
💃🏻 DECENTRALAND'S FASHION WEEK
Deadfellaz 🧟‍♂️
Stepping into the metaverse with @BosonProtocol in collaboration with @neuno_io and @giuseppezanotti : physical bomber jacket, shirt and hat, digital wearables and exclusive @giuseppezanotti digital Cobras sneakers available at Metaverse Fashion Week, March 24. https://t.co/ihNhdTrOmx
Decentraland is currently hosting a four-day virtual fashion event that will include runway shows, afterparties, and pop-up shops. The event is happening in the Decentraland Luxury Fashion District, and features some of the popular brands in the fashion sector including Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Dundas, and Etro. [CryptoBriefing]
Boson Protocol, the universal commerce settlement layer for Web3, is partnering with these brands for Metaverse Fashion Week, and helps them sell their exclusive physical products as redeemable NFTs within a boulevard of metaverse stores.
NFT collection Deadfellaz already announced an exclusive partnership with French luxury fashion platform neuno in order to release Bomber jackets and long sleeve t-shirts. In addition, they’ll be throwing a Deadfellaz after-party in Decentraland land on Friday Evening 10pm est, where attendees can win poaps, digital, and physical wearables.
Fashion District Map
Fashion District Map
💰 YUGA LABS VALUED AT $4B
Yuga Labs - Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Yuga Labs - Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The creator of the million-dollar Bored Ape NFTs, Yuga Labs raised a total of $450 million from the seed round, which included investors like Animoca Brands, LionTree, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, FTX, and MoonPay.
The capital raised has catapulted the startup into unicorn status with a $4 billion valuation. The firm announced news of the funding with a statement from representation manager Guy Oseary. [The Verge]
“This capital will give Yuga speed to market on many things underway, and bring in new partners with strategic thinking that share the vision.”
📰 NEWS FROM THE PAST WEEK
Adidas - Into The Metaverse Discord update
Adidas - Into The Metaverse Discord update
In a recent discord update, Adidas unveiled a few of their plans in regards to their Into The Metaverse NFT pass. The update included their Yuga Labs investment and partnerships, an ERC-721 (Profile picture?) token with rarities, random airdrops, and other unannounced collaborations.
This update sparked their NFT sales volume and is currently continuing to push their floor price up.
OTHER NEWS
  • Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum and one of the key people in the crypto space, is on the cover of Time Magazine’s first-ever full issue released on blockchain as an NFT.
  • ApeCoin (APE) has become the most traded token by Ethereum whales over the past 24 hours, reaching a holder count of over 36,500 wallets just 6 days after being listed on the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. [CryptoPatato]
  • As a special project, American rappers Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa released on Thursday a set of eight music tracks as NFTs where ApeCoin (APE) and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) act as the theme.
  • GameStop added Loopring to its list of key partners as a layer-2 solution to the upcoming launch of a GameStop NFT platform. [Blockonomi]
  • Tennis player Naomi Osaka becomes Global Ambassador of crypto exchange FTX in order to “help bring women onto the platform and into the future of Web3.” [CryptoSlate]
  • Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone is launching his 9,997 digital “SLYGuys” NFTs, set to launch next month, featuring Rocky and Rambo.
  • Binance NFT, the NFT marketplace of Binance, is launching a unique NFT collection in collaboration with Toni Kroos, one of the best German soccer players in history currently playing as a midfielder for Real Madrid. [TheNewsCrypto]
  • The largest U.S. oil and gas company Exxon Mobil is using excess natural gas to mine Bitcoin. [CoinTelegraph]
✨ NEW IN THE SPACE
Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, is eyeing a new opportunity to hop on the NFT bandwagon. The music streaming service recently posted two job listings for senior engineers to work on early-stage Web3 products.
The qualifying candidate, according to the job postings, will be part of a full-stack team tasked with pushing “growth through new technologies, like Web3.”
In another job ad, Spotify noted that it is looking for a manager with experience in “content, creator, media, web3, and emerging technology industries” to “help define Spotify Moonshots.” Spotify is keeping mum about the specifics of the NFT plans. [Blockonomi]
OTHER BRANDS ENTERING THE WEB3 SPACE
  • Coolman’s Universe has partnered with foam clog company, Crocs. Crocs and Coolman Universe posted a picture on their Twitter and Instagram pages, confirming an upcoming collaboration.
  • Popstar Madonna has acquired a Bored Ape NFT valued at more than half a million dollars.
  • Meta, previously known as Facebook, has recently filed for eight trademark applications for its blue two-loop logo and covers crypto tokens, blockchain software, virtual currency exchanges, currency trading, and digital, crypto, and virtual currencies. [TheBlockCrypto]
  • Alfa Romeo’s F1 Team took a huge step towards its presence in the metaverse by unveiling its partnership with Everdome to provide a digital home for the future of their community and fan engagement. [TheNewsCrypto]
  • Krafton, the company that developed the popular PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS game, has announced a partnership with Solana in order to “create video games with elements of blockchain technology, such as NFTs”. [CryptoDaily]
  • FTX US announced that they acquired Good Luck Games, the creators of the prominent auto-battle card game Storybook Brawl. [CryptoSlate]
  • Australian airline provider Qantas recently announced that they were planning an NFT drop to their frequent flyers. [CryptoSlate]
💀 HOW TO RECOGNIZE A RUG PULL
A “rug pull” is a wildly used term within the crypto world and NFT space to describe a scam in which the founders of a project don’t fulfill their promises after receiving funds - essentially, running away with the money.
In order to recognize these rug pulls and to help you improve your research, we’ll be sharing various tips and tricks over the next few newsletters.
NFT Ethics
2/ It was still interesting to see that the Head of Consumer Product Marketing at Twitter, @TheSmarmyBum, bought Meebits well before the announcement and we look forward to hearing his perspective on insider trading in this space. https://t.co/5AeNwXlWGP
There are concerns about market manipulation in the recent Yuga Labs acquisition of Meebits and CryptoPunk IP. This concern stems from an observation that between March 5 and March 11, several addresses purchased a total of 159 Meebits NFTs.
It pointed out that the Head of Consumer Product Marketing at Twitter, Justin Taylor, and former Head of Marketing of TikTok Nick Tran bought Meebits NFTs before the acquisition. These were people who were likely aware of Yuga Labs’ plans.
OTHER RUG PULLS
📅 UPCOMING MINTS
This chapter of the newsletter functions as the extension of my public NFT mint calendar, which is meant to highlight projects I’m looking forward to.
Below are two of the projects I’m looking forward to the most; Sprite Club and World of Women Galaxy. However: do your own research into them if they sound interesting because this shouldn’t be considered as financial advice.
SPRITE CLUB
The first thing everyone talks about when they mention the Sprite Club is their minting process. They’ve successfully created a lore around it, by announcing a personality quiz that will decide which distinct Classes your Sprite will be assigned to.
You can read last week’s research around Sprite Club here.
WORLD OF WOMEN - GALAXY
  • Pre-mint date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022
  • Supply: 22,222 (10K Holders, 10K Public, and 2.222 allowlists)
  • Price: Free for holders, Dutch auction for public sale, and Ξ0.3 for allowlist 
The WOW Galaxy is WOW’s second collection, aimed to onboard thousands of people to their team and vision: “onboarding thousands of people to this new era of the web, launching partnerships with major brands and supporting artists and nonprofits.”
Their inaugural collection was released on July 27th (2021), and should now be considered as a blue-chip project which generated some fascinating numbers, from 61K ETH volume to a 13 ETH Floor price.
Next to being fully doxed and launching this second collection, artist and co-founder Yam Karkai also confirmed that 10% of all primary sales from WoW Galaxy will go to the WoW Foundation in order to execute their vision in supporting emerging creators.
It’s still unclear if the WOW Galaxy collection will have its own roadmap, however, they have mentioned that the WoW Galaxy holders will be considered “contributors and investors in the WOW mission”. This means it comes with unique benefits such as:
  • Invited to the WoW Gala.
  • Ownership of the underlying artwork and IP.
  • Vote in DAWoW, their DAO.
  • Special benefits for WoW + WoWG holders.
  • More to be announced
Additionally, WOW has announced that the collection will contain 16 different 1/1 NFTs, hand-drawn by Yam K and thus not generated. 8 Champions will be discovered by WoW holders, whereas the 8 Guardians will be found during the public sale and allowlist.
Last but not least; over the past few months, WOW started some amazing collaborations with Coinbase, Sandbox, Yuga Labs, KPMG, and others. It’s unconfirmed if the Galaxy holders will directly benefit from this, however: it definitely helps with the branding, and therefore will impact the floor price as well.
The reason why I like WOWG is that their team is known to build towards their vision, and already has an established project that will generate the revenue they need to keep building. However: I’m totally not a fan of Dutch Auctions.
WORLD OF WOMEN GALAXY art preview
WORLD OF WOMEN GALAXY art preview
🔮 LOOKING FORWARD
We are already looking ahead to the next few weeks, meaning we’re currently doing our due diligence and researching the projects listed below.
It’s no financial advice at all, but you might want to start doing your research and grinding for these allowlists before it’s too late.
PS - Don’t hesitate to tell them you found out about them via this newsletter ;)
📖 LEARN HOW TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
When you’re an NFT collector who’s not super active in alpha groups, you’ll probably hear about new projects when they are already released and maybe even super hyped. This increases the chances that you’ll end up buying in at the top, so my advise for new investors would be to focus on (pre-) minting new projects, and investing in projects with a long term vision.
sweetaz.eth
My biggest mistake in NFT's was buying hyped up projects looking for a quick flip instead of investing in projects with a team that was focused on building. Thankfully I have learnt from my mistakes. No more the community is the roadmap or merch is the utility.
👀 BEHIND THE SCENES
Over the past few months, I’ve seen a lot of new teams launch their genesis NFT token for an absurd amount of money without having any track record in the space. This made me think: how much does it actually cost to run a new NFT project that promises utility?
I stumbled upon Ryan Carson’s Twitter Thread in which he thoroughly lists and explains the costs. Definitely a must-read with amazing insights from behind the scenes!
Ryan Carson (🥃,🦉)
2/ Projects that promise utility:

Annual cost for barebones team:

1 Designer: 40 eth
1 Full-Stack Web Dev: 60 eth
1 Blockchain Dev: 70 eth
1 Founder: 40 eth
1 Accountant Contractor: 3 eth
1 Lawyer Contractor: 4 eth
2 Volunteer Mods: 0 eth
30% overhead: 65 eth

Total: 282 eth
😂 LAUGH OUT LOUD
😂 😂 😂 We’ve all been there ..
😊 ENJOYED THIS WEEK'S ALPHA?
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🤓 DISCLAIMER: NFA & DYOR
This newsletter is a curated overview of the most interesting things I’ve read the past week, the projects I’ve researched, and the NFTs I’ll be trying to buy.
This means I’m - per definition - biased, so don’t consider this as financial advice and keep doing your own research if you see something you like.
Did you enjoy this issue?
AMERICANxRADASS

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