Rug Pulls Are Now Officially Outlawed in the US

TL;DR

• Aurelien Michel, creator of the ‘Mutant Ape Planet’ NFT project, plead guilty to wire fraud charges, becoming the first scammer to be convicted (in the US) for rug pulling an NFT project.

• Ol’ Mish raked in ~$3M from the sales of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs, after making the promise to buyers that they would get access to giveaways, merchandise collections, and tokens with staking features in return – they didn’t.

• Aurelien now faces up to five years in federal prison.

Full Story

Rug pulls.

They’re a tale as old as time:

• Dad says he’ll take you camping (he doesn’t)

• Mom says “we have Coca Cola at home” (it’s RC)

• Your significant other tells you “you can pull off a Fedora” (you can’t. Only Britney can)

Here’s the thing though:

While these are all egregious erosions of trust – none of them are crimes.

But in the world of crypto (specifically, NFTs), this kind of unfulfilled promise – when paired with the exchange of money – becomes wire fraud.

That was the theory at least – until Tuesday – when it became official (awww ❤️):

Aurelien Michel, creator of the ‘Mutant Ape Planet’ NFT project, plead guilty to wire fraud charges, becoming the first scammer to be convicted (in the US) for rug pulling an NFT project.

Here’s what he did:

Ol’ Mish raked in ~$3M from the sales of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs, after making the promise to buyers that they would get access to giveaways, merchandise collections, and tokens with staking features in return.

(They didn’t).

To add insult to injury, Aurelien was even bold enough to blame the collection’s ‘toxic’ community for his decision to run off with their money:

“We never intended to rug, but the community went way too toxic”

Fortunately, a community’s ‘toxic’ vibe isn’t a sound legal defense, and Aurelien now faces up to five years in federal prison.