Floyd Mayweather launches new NFT project despite shady past in crypto space

On April 13, retired professional boxer Floyd Mayweather will launch a new non-fungible token (NFT) project, dubbed Mayweverse, that would offer crypto enthusiasts a collection of 5,000 NFTs that can be minted for 0.3 Ethereum (ETH) each. 

Following the announcement, however, many user began raising concerns, primarily due to Mayweather’s arguably controversial track record in the NFT sector. A pseudonymous on-chain detective, known as “Zachbxt” on CryptoTwitter, opined that it would be irrational for anyone to invest in the project given the number of NFT rug pulls the boxer has allegedly been involved in.

Mayweather’s failed projects and promos

Hitherto, the boxer had already launched several NFT projects that many users considered slow rug pulls. The first one was Floyds World NFT launched in August 2021. The collection of 11,111 tokens was sold at 0.15 ETH per NFT, with the developers making over 1,000 ETH from the minting.

Mayweather was also among the major promoters of Bored Bunny NFTs which turned out to be a massive rug pull as users who bought into the project lost over $20 million.

Apart from NFTs, Mayweather has an arguably checkered history of promoting crypto projects in general. For example, he was one of several celebrities who promoted a relatively unknown token EthereumMax in 2021, wearing boxing shorts with its name during his exhibition match with Logan Paul.

Other celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Paul Pierce also promoted the token, helping inflate its all-time high price before crashing. The aforementioned three, along with EthereumMax developers themselves, are now facing a class-action lawsuit with allegations of being involved in a pump and dump scheme.

Mayweather also received $100,000 for promoting Centra Tech’s initial coin offering in 2017, for which he was later charged alongside DJ Khaled by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Back then, the project’s offering brought in 113,934 ETH, worth roughly  $25 million at the time.

Due to his involvement, the SEC sued Mayweather for failing to disclose that compensation, and he later opted to settle the case by paying over $600,000 and agreeing to not promote any securities for three years.

Once bitten, twice shy

Given Mayweather’s track record of involvement in alleged rug pulls and pump and dump schemes, many have called for regulators to protect retail investors by going after him.

But the boxer claims that Mayweverse is a legitimate project this time around. In a direct message to Zachbxt, Mayweather asked for the latter’s critical post to be removed and claimed that he’s “in the NFT space to stay.”

Notably, Mayweather also promised that his new project “will be followed by a Metaverse,” but it remains to be seen whether this leopard can change its spots.

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