One of the latest controversies about NFTs revolves around Pepe’s butt. For whatever reason, an NFT collector was willing to pay $500K to have a picture of Pepe the Frog’s butt. But shortly after the purchase, he accused the artist of scamming him, as it turns out that he is not the only proud owner of this ‘hot’ image.
The collector of NFTHalston Thayer, has sued the creator of pepe the frog, Matt Furie, because apparently his “exclusive” Pepe wasn’t as unique as he imagined. Thayer He claims that he was promised that his Pepe would be completely unique, and that it was only sold through the auction that he won for $500,000.. However, Furie later went on to give away the same NFT, a move that Thayer says amounts to “unfair, false and misleading advertising.”
“This action arises from the illegal, unfair and fraudulent business practices of the defendants […] regarding a particular non-fungible token (NFT) auction that led to plaintiff and others flagrantly outbidding on the NFT“says the lawsuit.
Thayer’s legal team accused Furie of intentionally misleading buyers about the “exclusivity” of the NFT, in order to inflate the price. They say that Furie did it knowing that his team would distribute the same NFT for free after the auction ends.
“They announced the auctioned NFT as the only one of the existing 100 to be auctioned, promising that the remaining 99 would be held from circulation indefinitely, to increase the amount of the bid.“says the court document.
“As a result of Defendants’ tortious conduct, Plaintiff suffered damages in the amount of more than $507,084 when the value of the NFT he purchased at the auction for $537,084 plummeted to less than $30,000 when Defendants gave away 46 identical NFTs.“.
Thayer is demanding a trial, and so far, Furie has yet to publicly respond to these accusations.