Azuki NFT founder admits to 3 failed projects, is this the end for Azuki?

This shocking revelation stunned the NFT community. The founder of Azuki NFT just admitted to three failed NFT projects before launching the popular Azuki NFT line. According to Zachxbt, the founder of CryptoPhunks, Tendies and CryptoZunks, he is allegedly the one behind CryptoZunks, CryptoPhunks and CryptoZunks.

Azuki NFT Founder Reveals Failed NFT Projects

. Credit: @ZAGABOND on Twitter

Azuki NFT Founder Revealed Failed NFT Projects

In a Twitter post, Azuki NFT Founder ZAGABOND.ETH (@ZAGABOND) posted a link to a blog entitled “A Builders Journey.” The caption says “Bull or bear, Azuki is building towards the future of web3. We are in it for long-term. Web3 builders need to try new things to be successful. Azuki was built from the lessons learned from Phunks and other projects. I learned to lead and not follow.

The blog highlighted the founder’s history in creating NFTs, beginning with CryptoPhunks. It states that Phunks is Larva Lab’s CryptoPunks. Its origin is a simple parody collection that evolved into something larger in the NFT space.

The founder stated that the project “challenged the community to think about Web3 copyright rules.” Larva Labs issued a DMCA request on CryptoPhunks. The collection was delisted and relisted multiple times on OpenSea.

The next failed NFT project is Tendies, which the founder admits “looked too much like turds”. Tendies’ minting experience was supposed to be akin to ordering chicken tenders from a fast-food joint. With only 15% of the collection minted, the project also didn’t make it.

Finally, CryptoZunks is the continuation of founder Parodying Punks. In the blog, he said that the NFT collection was the “last 1000 Punks” that features the never-been-seen Punk combinations. However, the project was killed due to “limitations” of the project because of gas costs on Ethereum. The founder also listed reasons for the project’s death as team members leaving and a disconnect with the community.

Azuki NFT Founders Accused of Rug Pulled Failed Projects?

While the blog is probably meant to showcase the origin of Azuki NFT and the lessons the founder learned through the NFT ventures, it also caught the critical and observant eye of the NFT community. A thread was started by @zachxbt, a Twitter user and Web3 sleuth. He accused the founder of Azuki of “rugging three project in less than one year”.

Zachxbt claimed that CryptoPhunks and Tendies are all rug pullers. He also included posts from other Twitter users to support his claim. In August 2012, @PaulOx tweeted that the “Zunk developers pretended to be women” and had made more than 2 million dollars by using this marketing tactic.

In addition, another screenshot of a post that says the Tendies founder ceased all activity and deleted social media and Discord server a month after launch.

Lastly, another post on how there was no handoff when the Phunk devs left while the founders gained around 300 Eth.

The Azuki NFT founder replied to zachxbt’s thread claiming they delivered everything they promised on the failed projects. He said that there was no product-market match at the end of it all, but that doesn’t mean it’s a rug. The community isn’t convinced.

Azuki NFT has faced several issues and controversies, but the founder now accused of doing rug pulls puts the NFT project in a precarious situation. This is the end of Azuki NFT. We will see how it all unfolds.