Just like everything in the world of cryptocurrency, beloved monster hunting franchise Pokémon has been subject to myriad rip-offs. As expected, one of the largest Poké rip-offs — PokéMoney — may be one gigantic scam.
PokeMoney rug pulls $3.5 million
Reported by Web 3 is Going Great, the crypto Pokémon rip-off game “PokeMoney” hyped itself as the next-generation Pokémon-styled Metaverse.
Pokémon clones have been a huge part of the crypto-Metaverse push. With the monster collecting aspect of the proper franchise appealing to completionists, crypto developers attempt to create their own rip-offs that can be sold as NFTs. This then leads to massive FOMO from customers, encouraging them to invest quickly.
However, as surprising as it may seem, PokeMoney may have been a scam. With the crypto and NFT industry confirmed by major marketplaces to be 80% scams, plagiarism and even fraud, this is unfortunately par for the course.
After the value of the crypto scheme was raised substantially, the token powering the would-be NFT game crashed. This resulted in 11,800 BNB, worth around $3.5 million, to be pulled out of the project, making everything else worthless.
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The “hack” excuse
Following the trend of crypto-related rug pulls, the team behind PokeMoney claim that the plummeting prices are due to a mysterious hack. While there’s no proof of the hack, the team behind the project are adamantly sticking behind the claims.
After the rug pull, PokeMoney announced through its official Telegram Channel that it would be relaunching the service. In the crypto space, a massive failure or scam usually results in a relaunch to try and push people into the next round of scams.
For example, last month, popular cryptocurrency Luna suffered from a catastrophic crash. With the Luna token in such disarray, the creators launched Luna 2.0, converting original Luna investors’ coins into the new version.
However, despite announcing plans for a relaunch, the Pokémon crypto rip-off has yet to actually relaunch. Instead, multiple delays and excuses continue to come straight from the devs.