De’Aaron Fox, an NBA star, said today in a series of restricted tweets that his NFT collection, “Swipa The Fox,” would be disbanded immediately, taking with it 475 user ETH, valued roughly $1.5 million at the time of the project’s minting.
https://twitter.com/swipathefox/status/1496949627077406721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1496949627077406721%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fembedly.forbes.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext2Fhtmlkey%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935schema%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fswipathefox%2Fstatus%2F1496949627077406721image%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Fi.embed.ly%2F1%2Fimage3Furl3Dhttps253A252F252Fabs.twimg.com252Ferrors252Flogo46x38.png26key3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935
The initiative, which went live on January 15 of this year, was “poor timed,” according to the tweets, because it coincided with the midst of the NBA season. “The time and attention that y’all deserve and that I wanted to give you all/what this project takes, was not known to me and I overstepped and stretched myself too thin,” De’Aaron said on the Swipa the Fox Discord channel (which has 106k members).
The “high utility NFT collection” was one of the more ambitious and well-publicized sports NFT projects, promising opportunities to win all-star game tickets, a metaverse basketball court, and even a scholarship to Fox’s alma mater, the University of Kentucky, in addition to 3D “Fox” avatars.
In the Discord channel, Fox promised to compensate “All Rookies” members (those who had purchased between 5 and 9 NFTs) with a signed jersey, which is presently valued on eBay between $75 and $145 dollars. De’Aaron also vowed to “thank” MVPs (those who purchased at least 20 NFTs), however the nature of the incentive is still unknown. While Fox appears to be remorseful, it’s evident that the 3,000 Fox investors are still angry about the lack of explanation around the project’s demise—and, more significantly, where their money has gone.
