In Brief:Â
- Evil Ape disappeared along with the project’s official Twitter account and website.
- The Evil ape community will build a new project called Fight Back Apes.
- The Fight Back Apes project operates a multi-signature wallet unlike Evil apes that only has sole access to the wallet.
A week after the Evolved Apes launched, the anonymous developer known as Evil Ape disappeared along with the NFT project’s official Twitter account and website. However, a trail on the blockchain shows they siphoned 798 ether ($2.7 million) out of the project’s funds in multiple transfers.Â
The funds were derived from the initial public sale of NFTs and commissions on the secondary market. They were meant to be used for the purpose of project-related expenses such as marketing.Â
Evolved Apes is a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs trapped inside a lawless land. They are fighting for survival; only the strongest of them will survive.
After the public sale on September 24, investors noticed several red flags, including suspicious announcements and a few of the company’s leaders being absent.
The Evil Ape has retracted from the project, taking away the wallet containing all the Ethereum from the minting, which was to be utilized for everything from paying the artist, paying out cash giveaways, paying for marketing, paying for rarity tools, developing the game and everything else in between.
Despite all of this, the Evolved Apes trade on OpenSea is still going strong! Over 574 NFTs were bought and sold for $47,230 since Friday when the rug pull came to light.
The Evolved Apes community will remain active even after the money has been lost. Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFT rug pulls leave behind a trail of JPEGs and a narrative.
In the ashes of Evolved Apes, the Evil ape community will build a new project called Fight Back Apes. Evolved Apes holders would automatically become eligible for a Fight Back Apes token.
The Fight Back Apes project operates a multi-signature wallet so that multiple people must agree to anything that taken place before funds can be transferred. This is in contrast to Evolved Apes, which confined sole access to the project wallet to Evil Ape.