In Brief:
- MekaVerse, a collection of Ethereum NFTs, has been controversial since its launch.
- Twitter users claimed leaked data was being exploited for market gain before the final NFT images were published.
In a 24-hour period, MekaVerse generated over $60 million worth of sales, making it one of the most successful NFT collectibles launches in recent memory. However, the initial rollout was dogged by controversy, and even more allegations of fraud have emerged since then.
MekaVerse, an Ethereum-based collection of 8,888 randomly generated profile pictures, held its minting process on October 7, so new NFT owners were unsure which picture they had purchased.
In a way, it was like an invoice: holders saw a placeholder ahead of a planned collection-wide reveal days later. Even secondary market buyers weren’t sure what they would get.
In the meantime, all images on OpenSea looked the same, and secondary prices soared as users gambled on snagging a rare, especially valuable image.
In the run-up to launch, unrevealed MekaVerse NFTs sold for 7.1ETH on average, which was about $25,000.
The buyer should not have known what he was buying. As of the launch, there have been a number of accusations on social media that some buyers may have had access to the metadata, which describes which attributes each image contains. It was possible to purchase rare NFTs with that data.
As a result of a viral tweet thread, a user named MOLOTOV accused MekaVerse of being rigged. It was revealed the developers, Wyb0 from Miinded Studios, managed to secure one of the rarest NFTs around the average going price just before the reveal. OpenSea data and other resources suggest he did so.
Several of MOLOTOV’s tweets indicate the developer traded on insider information-and it’s just one tweet among many about the project.
Creators responded to the accusations on Thursday via their public Discord server. According to the team, the reveal process included a custom Python script to aid with randomization and a seed system to re-generate the order if necessary.
During this time, Wyb0, the developer accused of using inside information to purchase a rare MekaVerse NFT, tweeted about his purchase, saying that it occurred before the MekaVerse creators had sent me the metadata and final images.
He further added, As a result of the controversy, NFTs in question will apparently be auctioned for charity.
Despite these allegations, MekaVerse’s floor price-or the cheapest available NFT has fallen precipitously in recent days.
Data from Cryptoslam suggested that the collection was trading above 7 ETH per NFT before the reveal, At this writing, the most affordable MekaVerse NFTs on OpenSea is below 2 ETH (about $7,700). Still, the collection has generated more than $130 million in secondary trading volumes.
