NFTs are very controversial in games. Now a Varorant professional would have wasted a lot of money. Because he followed a trend that can quickly turn against NFTs.
NFTs are a new trend and just as controversial. Now, a well-known varorant pro would have lost a lot of money playing NFTs.
Because Matt “WARDELL” Yu, who is a Valorant shooter professional, had invested in digital whales. In doing so, he is said to have built on a trend that could become quite costly for unsuspecting investors if the stock reverses.
NFT is the new trend in gaming, companies are worth billions of dollars – but why?
Valorant pro would lose €285,000 by investing in whales
What exactly happened? WARDELL himself claims on Twitter that he lost between $200,000 and $300,000 on NFTs. He allegedly invested the money in the “Catalina Whale” project.
“In the next few days I will be working on filing a report on the person who stole over 200k, 300k now because of Catalina Whale PUMP 💥 (POW). My mental health hasn’t been the best these last few months, but I have to move on.” (Matt “WARDELL” Yu)
How exactly did he lose the money? In several messages, he explains that money has been stolen from him and that he wants to act. However, he does not explain exactly how the theft occurred.
In his first post, however, he speaks of “pump”. This is a risky trend that can be used by unsuspecting individuals to lose a lot of money quickly.
In another post, he has since said he confronted the thief. However, it doesn’t get much more specific:
“I confronted the person who robbed me. I can’t wait to share this with you all. So much juice.” (Matt “WARDELL” Yu)
What does pump even mean? A “pump” is a risky trend in NFTs. Well-known professionals or celebrities buy certain NFTs or talk about how great they are. Many followers or friends then join and also buy the NFTs or the currency. NFTs then start to appreciate strongly in value.
Such pump actions are more commonly used to add value to NFTs. For example, the “Azuki NFT collection” increased its value from 1 ETH to 20 ETH in such a campaign (via business2community.com).
Previous owners then have a chance to make a profit and sell their NFTs well above the value that existed before the pump action.
The new investors then own thousands of coins and NFTs, but these lose a lot of value or even become worthless due to the sales of the old owners. Here we speak of “pump and dump”.
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It’s probably more than a question of money: The whole action is likely to have long-term consequences. Because for Wardell, it’s not just about the money he lost. Because on Twitter, he openly supported and interacted regularly with the NFT group behind Catalina Whale. Presumably, he had hoped to benefit from the NFT group in the long run.
This isn’t the first time an NFT project has made headlines. For example, owners of digital monkeys had lost around $3 million just by clicking on a link:
NFT speculators’ flagship project loses about 3 million euros because investors fall for a dumb trick