04/10/2021 Solana NFT project delivers emojis instead of promised artwork

Solana NFT enthusiasts have been left gobsmacked after a supposed 17-year-old digital artist allegedly took 1,000 SOL in a fake NFT project.

The artist was accused of what’s known as a ‘rug pull’ in the crypto community. A ‘rug pull’ is when a project fails to deliver, and absconds with all invested funds.

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Iconics had promised to produce 8,000 NFTs in the form of randomised 3D artworks of busts with a range of attributes. The project was due to launch on September 30, with 2,000 NFTs available for 0.5 SOL to those who had early access via a presale.

The 2,000 presale NFTs sold out quickly, and users waited eagerly for the reveal to see what they minted. Instead, minters who got early access through the presale received an NFT featuring 20 random emojis and quickly took to Twitter to express their frustration at apparently being duped.

Emoji NFT
Emoji NFT

Twitter user @adhcrypto took to Twitter to share an image of his costly emoji-based artwork

A user called ‘FreeCartel’ noted that the creators of the project were a father and son duo and that “ICONICS had all of the right signs of a good project“, further compounding the frustration felt by the community.

FreeCartel also listed a number of points that indicated theproject was possible a scam, including using an “on.fleek” domain to mint the NFTs, no community management and the use ofauto-approved transactions.

To add insult to injury, the creators had also said they reveal their identities after the minting process in a Discord faq.

Popular Solana NFT accountSOLBigBrainalso got caught up in the scandal, saying “Damn.. @IconicsSol just RUGGED. Did a presale for 2K at .5 and made off with I think 1000 SOL”.

“Sorry to anybody who took the L here. I minted a bunch also as art looked good. Lesson Learned,” they added.

Following the botched minting, the Discord chat channel was disabled, no further announcements have been made and its Twitter account deleted.

However, the Solana NFT community has since rallied and an array of projects have taken to Twitter to offer airdrops, 50% minting discounts and one-for-one swaps for those unfortunate enough to own a now dubiously iconic piece of Solana NFT history.

Arts

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/solana-nft-project-delivers-emojis-184340464.html

Interesting NFTs
#93975
By OthersideDeployer
Cosmic Chess
Cosmic Chess is a playable artwork that will evolve in time as the game progresses. This piece utilizes a special Layer Changer tool that lets owners move their pieces just like they would a regular chess game! To see the current state of the board you can view the tool here: https://asyncchess.herokuapp.com/1148
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
CryptoKitties
Oh hi! I'm Kitty #418135. I enjoy staying woke, sitting on your computer, and reciting poetry. I'm convinced that the world is flat. One day I'll prove it. We're so fur-tunate to have found each other!
Rare Thanos PNG
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