--- title: "NFT Buyers Furious After Art They Spent $70 Million on Turned Out to Be Completely Hideous" description: "Imagine the worst aspects of both Pokémon and non-fungible tokens and you begin to get the gist of what happened with Pixelmon." date: "2022-02-28" modified: "2022-03-01" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/pixelmon-nft-scam" categories: - "Art" - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" - "NFTs" tags: - "gaming" - "nfts" - "the blockchain" - "the digest" --- # NFT Buyers Furious After Art They Spent $70 Million on Turned Out to Be Completely Hideous ![Imagine the worst aspects of both Pokémon and non-fungible tokens and you begin to get the gist of what happened with Pixelmon.]() *\Image: Pixelmon\* ## Ugly Art It's yet another tale of NFT hype gone hilariously awry. What was promised to be a beautifully-designed, Pokémon-inspired NFT project called Pixelmon turned out to be a huge mess of irredeemably ugly pixel art — and investors are now furious. The part-game, part-NFT project [promised to allow]() buyers to "train, trade, fight and evolve your Pixelmon" in the Metaverse. According to the project's lead, who goes by the username "Syber," the project [raised $70 million worth of Ethereum]() on the NFT marketplace OpenSea, while [teasing tastefully-designed characters](). When the actual NFT art was revealed late this month, however, investors began to immediately [express buyers' remorse](). "I think it's fair to say all the buyers were rugged," [one Twitter user argued](), referring to an [increasingly common]() maneuver in which crypto developers unexpectedly abandon their projects and run with the money. "Stop supporting cash grab NFT projects." https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1497370216690503687?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1497370216690503687%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdecrypt.co%2F93964%2F70-million-pixelmon-founder-calls-artwork-reveal-horrible-mistake ## Buyer's Remorse After [touting Pixelmon as a surefire investment]() back in December, Syber admitted after the reveal that "[the \[art\] reveal was unacceptable]()," claiming the stuff they'd showed off didn't reflect the actual in-game art. Nevertheless, NFT enthusiasts couldn't resist posting [countless]() [memes]() on Twitter, poking fun at the half-baked character designs. https://twitter.com/DiscoverXnft/status/1498127608575594500 It's far from the first time an NFT project has failed to live up to the hype. Not a week goes by, it seems, without an NFT scamming collectors out of [millions](). Pixelmon, however, is a little different. Instead of running with the money, Syber is doubling down, arguing the project isn't ready yet. "The plan was always to use the funding raised from mint to create proper and better models," they wrote in [a tweet](). "I would like to apologize on behalf of myself and Pixelmon for everyone that has been affected by this," Syber wrote in a Sunday "Ask Me Anything" on the project's Discord channel, as [quoted by *CoinDesk*](). "When we began this project, we were not thinking it would get as big as this." Whether such an apology will be enough to appease collectors, some of whom spent thousands of dollars' worth of Pixelmon, remains to be seen. **Read up on an NFT scam with a happier ending:** *[A Bunch of People Who Got Scammed By An NFT Project Took Sweet Revenge]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()