De'Aaron Fox Essentially Scammed Fans Out of $1.5M

[JoeyMorgan619]

Saw on Reddit:

Sacramento Kings player De'Aaron Fox announced his "SwipaTheFox" NFT project in mid-December, and the "high utility NFT collection" went live on January 15. The project roadmap promised a metaverse basketball court, a scholarship to a University of Kentucky student, and chances to win all-star gaming tickets, as well as "much more to come". The project had over 100,000 people in its Discord, and pulled in about 475 ETH (about $1.5 million at the time).

Suddenly, on February 23, the project deleted its social media accounts and most of its Discord. Fox wrote in the remaining Discord announcements channel that "The time and attention that y’all deserve and that I wanted to give you all/what this project requires, was not known to me and I overstepped and stretched myself too thin, trying to do this project in the middle of an NBA season." He promised to send anyone who bought more than five NFTs (which would have cost ~0.4 ETH, around $1,300, if bought at mint price) a signed jersey (thanks I guess!). Meanwhile, Fox made no apparent effort to communicate publicly that the project was shutting down, such as on his personal 288,000-follower Twitter account where he had previously been hyping the project.

Dude is on a 5yr/163M contract and is still out here scamming people. What a POS.

[miamiheat319]

NFTs are so ****ing stupid. Do yourself a favor and stay away from that industry

[Jeremy Lin 7]

To think that the Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton over Fox...

Haliburton would never scam fans like this

[wade44]

NFTs, **** coin and all the rest. We’re going backwards as a society with this virtual stuff

[brutalitops]

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=2022-02-23-1

Sacramento Kings player De'Aaron Fox announced his "SwipaTheFox" NFT project in mid-December, and the "high utility NFT collection" went live on January 15. The project roadmap promised a metaverse basketball court, a scholarship to a University of Kentucky student, and chances to win all-star gaming tickets, as well as "much more to come". The project had over 100,000 people in its Discord, and pulled in about 475 ETH (about $1.5 million at the time).

Suddenly, on February 23, the project deleted its social media accounts and most of its Discord. Fox wrote in the remaining Discord announcements channel that "The time and attention that y’all deserve and that I wanted to give you all/what this project requires, was not known to me and I overstepped and stretched myself too thin, trying to do this project in the middle of an NBA season." He promised to send anyone who bought more than five NFTs (which would have cost ~0.4 ETH, around $1,300, if bought at mint price) a signed jersey (thanks I guess!). Meanwhile, Fox made no apparent effort to communicate publicly that the project was shutting down, such as on his personal 288,000-follower Twitter account where he had previously been hyping the project.

Legal Fraud

[sikma42]

Based on what you posted, this is misinformation. The project went live just over a month ago and he is communicating with people that purchased the NFTs. You haven't provided what reps and warranties he breached and how he has responded. Way to early early to call this a scam and imo its bad form.

[madmaxmedia]

My guess is that he didn’t set out to scam people, but he did get way in over his head and has chosen not to set things right with the NFT holders. It’s easy for me to say this perhaps, but he could have written a check to give the bag holders say 50 cents on the dollar (which would cost him about $750K.) OTOH anyone who buys a NFT should understand the risks going in, the value could have gone to zero even if it hadn’t gone tits up. So I don’t feel sorry for anyone here in the end.

This is like one of those Kickstarters gone terribly wrong where no one is getting their solar heat seeking e-missiles or whatever. The difference is the dude who started the project is a multi-millionaire.

Watch on YouTube

[SF_Warriors]

If you are crowd sourcing into a NFT, you a moron, plain and simple. Doesnt matter what else they promised.

[Bornstellar]

What a douche. NFTs have incredible potential for pragmatic uses in the modern world in all kinds of facets, and I hate how it's essentially been distilled down to jpegs and crap like this

[GeorgeMarcus]

To think that the Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton over Fox...

Haliburton would never scam fans like this

In their defense I don't think anybody wanted Fox

[cpower]

maybe he will go to jail for scamming people ..on and off the court lmao

[macNcheese3]

I never really understood NFT's. Many, say they are the next big thing. I'd rather have a physical piece of art like a painting, I could look at and admire. Not saying NFT's aren't a form of art but thats just me.

[KrAzY3]

Let's make sure we phrase this correctly.

Digital stuff was spent to buy digital stuff. Turns out the digital stuff was probably worthless.

[azcatz11]

I never really understood NFT's. Many, say they are the next big thing. I'd rather have a physical piece of art like a painting, I could look at and admire. Not saying NFT's aren't a form of art but thats just me.

The people who are telling us 'next big thing' are the one's pumping these into the universe with 0 remorse of who they scam.

[madmaxmedia]

What a douche. NFTs have incredible potential for pragmatic uses in the modern world in all kinds of facets, and I hate how it's essentially been distilled down to jpegs and crap like this

Yeah, fundamentally it’s just a piece of programming that could have many different applications.
But right now in 2022, the actual reality is a bit different.

[Upperclass]

People use unwitting athletes to enrich themselves all the time. He likely didn't do the research, only was the celeb being fronted and was promised xyz.. and when it failed, someone told him they'll handle it.. and they are not handling it

[madmaxmedia]

I never really understood NFT's. Many, say they are the next big thing. I'd rather have a physical piece of art like a painting, I could look at and admire. Not saying NFT's aren't a form of art but thats just me.

LOL, some dude bought a Banksy painting, burned it and sold it as an NFT-
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56335948

[Bornstellar]

I never really understood NFT's. Many, say they are the next big thing. I'd rather have a physical piece of art like a painting, I could look at and admire. Not saying NFT's aren't a form of art but thats just me.

NFTs are not restricted to just pictures. It's weird to me that everyone thinks it just means digital art. I guess given the stupid ape picture nonsense and scammers like this guy, I can see why blockchain tech has a negative perception

[madmaxmedia]

People use unwitting athletes to enrich themselves all the time. He likely didn't do the research, only was the celeb being fronted and was promised xyz.. and when it failed, someone told him they'll handle it.. and they are not handling it

Yeah plenty of con men preying on athletes. Usually its just the athlete though losing his own money.

[Statlanta]

He plays in the NBA probably not enough time to do the proper research on things.