Pixel Penguins, an NFT project reportedly created by an artist battling cancer, has been exposed as a scam using stolen art.
How Pixel Penguins NFTs Became Popular
On May 30, crypto influencer Andrew Wang wrote a Twitter thread detailing how self-proclaimed pixel artist Hopeexist1 had battled eye cancer and created digital art for the community.
Cheek insisted his community to contribute to the artist’s hospital bills by purchasing her art. He added:
“I hear a lot about web3 not being what it used to be, and I’m often guilty of being a complainer more than anything. The truth is that web3 is what we want it to be, and first of all, the artists have not stopped creating here. We don’t have to choose them, but we can’t pretend they don’t exist.”
The thread, among several others, coming soon collected sympathy and attention from the wider community that has donated to the cause.
This increased publicity helped the collection sell out quickly and trendy on OpenSea. However, further investigation by the community soon revealed that the NFTs were stolen art and that the person did not have cancer.
Swindler made over $100,000
In a May 31 Twitter wireblockchain researcher ZachXBT said the Pixel Penguin contract had 61,686 ETH worth more than $117,000.
ZachXBT further revealed that the scammer had moved 63.5 ETH from the scam to two new recipients on the OKX crypto exchange.
Meanwhile, the scammer has since deactivated her Twitter account and the bottom price of the collection fell 86% to 0.004 ETH from a peak of 0.075 ETH on OpenSea. According to data from the NFT marketplace, Pixel Penguins recorded 6,582 sales and its volume was 216 ETH.
In addition Wang apologized for sharing the collection, saying he believed it to be genuine.
The post-NFT artist who was reportedly battling cancer and turned out to be a scam first appeared on CryptoSlate.
