Given the events of 2022, this list COULD be interminable.
We've limited ourselves to the 8 most "deserving" figures in web3.
The ordering is loose... just like these wizard sleeves ;)
1. Logan Paul
Thanks to recent revelationsâsummarized spectacularly by CoffeezillaâLogan Paul has been caught redhanded planning a scam + rug project: the infamous CryptoZoo. From a stealth launch that allowed founders to buy tokens before the public, to hiring and then never paying the projectâs devs, Logan was obviously trying to profits off the backs of his fans. Who markets a P2E game and then doesnât ever make a game?!? Ironically enough, the CryptoZoo founders were SO shady, they dumped on Paul before he could sell his token stash. What a c*nt.
2. Â SBF
What needs to be said about Sam Bankman-Fried that hasnât been exhaustively covered since FTXâs collapse? The latest saga in this scandal involves Sammy claiming to have no money⌠only to post significant bail, try & fail to hire a private jet, attempt to buy out an entire first-class cabin, only to settle for a business class seat. This bears repeating, what a c*nt.
3. Gary Gensler
Gensler was once the âcool MIT professorâ who taught the worldâs finest minds about blockchain. Now the embattled SEC Chairman has been portrayed as an ineffective, fame-chasing, failure⌠by HIS OWN political party. Echoing a growing sentiment in Congress, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) went IN: âThe operating principle of the SEC must be protection for the investing public, rather than publicity for the political appointee in charge.â Ouch.
4. Bitboy Crypto
Ben âBitboyâ Armstrong, aka the Eric Cartman/Alex Jones of crypto, has had a good end to 2022. He scored big points by being one of the first voices to go hard after SBF. But letâs not forget Bitboyâs ultimate cringe and scam revelations from this year.Â
Bitboy admitted to doing numerous paid videos where he shilled coins that flopped hard. He would skirt regulation by briefly mentioning the content was paid⌠and then going ham on the promo. This allowed shady founders to dump on Bitboyâs followers after they aped into the coin du jour.Â
Perhaps even more embarrassing (than selling himself out to shady coins), in August, Bitboy tried to bully the Youtuber Atozy and failed miserably. Armstrong sued Atozy for calling him a âdirtbag.â Bitboy gloated that heâll crush Atozy with his financial and legal mightâunless all of Atozyâs 16-year-old fans âborrow a $10 dollar mom (sic) from their momâs purse to help [him] out.â Talking shit about Atozyâs fans did not go well. A GoFundMe raised over $200k for Atozyâs legal defense⌠in under 24hrs! Seems that a lot of people were all too willing to crowdfund Bitboyâs humiliation.Â
5. Alex Mashinsky
From âUnbank yourselfâ to unemployed, Alex Mashinsky, former CEO of Celsius Network had a bad year. The blustering, self-promoting, king of unreasonably high-yield staking got caught up in the Terra & 3AC contagion. Perhaps his own words on June 12th of this year sum things up best, find âeven one person who has a problem withdrawing from Celsius.â On June 13th, Celsius stopped withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy. Oof.
6. Avraham âAviâ Eisenberg
Eisenberg is really putting the âCode is lawâ theory to test. The success of his DeFi exploits are only rivaled by the brazen arrogance of his Twitter posts. After stealing $110M from Mango Markets in October, Avi shouldâve stayed quiet. Instead, the braggart promoted his âworkâ openly on Twitter.
A few days ago, he was arrested in Puerto Rico for âmarket manipulation.â Oh, and for those who do think âcode is law,â and the collateral damage to thousands of people is insignificant, check out this thread detailing how Avi stole from FortressDAO. Good luck in court, buddy.
7. Kyle Roche
Redlion covered the scandal that involved AVA labs and their deathsquad of crypto lawyers. The chief culprit was Kyle Roche. He was caught on a hidden cam bragging about all the litigious hell he threw at AVAXâs competitors. The basic tactic was to set up class action lawsuits and tip off regulators all in the hope that AVAX would get more market share.Â
Kyle Roche led secret legal attacks on the crypto industry & competitors on behalf of Ava Labs/#AVAX
— Crypto Leaks (@CryptoLeaksInfo) August 30, 2022
Denials by Roche & Emin GĂźn Sirer are inconsistent with the evidence. However, their deceptive behavior is consistent:
"The lawyer who cheats the most, can often times, win"đ pic.twitter.com/jMB7tqpkLV
Even worse, via the discovery process of trials, Roche got his hands on the intellectual property of many crypto projectsâthey legally had to give their IP to Kyle, the casesâ plaintiff. This conniver has âseen the insides of every single crypto company.â How did he plan to win his cases? Well, âThe lawyer who cheats the most, can often times win.â
That may be true but Roche took the âLâ when his firm, Roche Freedman, parted ways with himâyup, they booted the Roche out of Roche Freedman. Thatâs cold.
8. Pixelmon
Not an individual but⌠wow. Remember the Pixelmon art reveal in February? SO embarrassing! After raising $70M in NFT sales, with prices starting at 3eth, Pixelmon revealed embarrassing art. Even the projectâs founder called the work âunacceptable.â Famed blockchain reporter, ZachXBT called it a rug. For those not directly involved with the project, it was mostly just âhilarious.â While it was not funny to the projectâs investors, at the very least, Pixelmon did reveal much improved, revamped art in September.
So @Pixelmon raised over $70m at 3 ETH per mint just for them to reveal like this. I think itâs fair to say all the buyers were rugged.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 26, 2022
Stop supporting cash grab NFT projects. pic.twitter.com/8VShQxNlgl
Congrats on making it to the bottom of the list, Anon. Shout out to all the blockchain sleuths like ZachXBT who made this article possible. We'll see youâand hopefully fewer scamsâin '23. Have a happy new year!