PROOF faces criticism! Rushing to raise funds again after selling Moonbirds, intricate web of wealthy connections

Kevin Rose-led private group NFT: PROOF, launched the PFP NFT Moonbirds, which set a record-breaking high trading volume and quickly surged over 15 times, remaining at the top of the OpenSea trading volume chart to this day. Moonbirds are held by NFT celebrities from various fields, and even the metaverse concept game The Sandbox has announced ownership.

However, not everyone has a positive view of PROOF.

Twitter Celebrity Cobie Mocks: "Genius"

Twitter celebrity Cobie stated: "Although it seems conflicting for those involved in Web 2 to sell NFTs worth tens of thousands of dollars and then immediately raise tens of thousands of dollars for an NFT fund, I still support the idea of Web 2 people deceiving each other to buy our bluff positions."

Cobie referred to the situation where PROOF and Moonbirds' COO Ryan Carson, shortly after raising a large sum of money for Moonbirds, launched another NFT fund within a week: 121g, providing whitelist minting and NFT trading. Twitter user Jacob Martin commented on why there was a need for another fund to offer what Moonbirds had already promised.

Cobie described the highest realm of NFTs as raising funds from others, investing in one's own NFTs, and then charging fees:

PROOF Represents Elite Influencer Connections

A Twitter account, NFT Ethics, had previously exposed the ownership connections of PROOF before Moonbirds' launch. They mentioned that some in the community suggested investigating PROOF's trading activities, as many wallets held only PROOF, but due to the common nature of wash trading, it may not be worth noting.

NFT Ethics uncovered PROOF's transaction records and mentioned that influencer connections have always been common in the NFT industry, with individuals like GaryVee Gennady, his co-founder AJ, and Beeple receiving PROOF for free.

GaryVee said he "bet" on it:

Given to Beeple for free:

Justin Rose, a member of Kevin Rose's venture capital firm True Ventures, along with GaryVee, invested in Justin Aversano's Quantum Art. Justin Aversano's wallet domain TwinFlames thus acquired PROOF for only 0.001 ETH, approximately three U.S. dollars.

Kevin Rose and GaryVee are also among the exclusive hundred members of another elite NFT DAO: FlamingoDAO. The reason PROOF NFTs can whitelist mint Quantum NFTs and why Justin Aversano is keen on MoonBirds is not without cause.

NFT Ethics even unearthed an Insider article from 2012 titled "The Inside Story On Why Kevin Rose Never Had A Big Hit" to insinuate why Kevin Rose never had a standout success, suggesting that in his past success stories, there was a common theme: once he created a successful product, he would start thinking about the next one, neglecting the present and causing many promises to go unfulfilled.

So What?

For most NFT speculators, whether through lottery draws or secondary market trades, massive profits have been made in a short period. Perhaps, ethical standards and commitments of NFT teams may not be of great concern to them.

The real concern may lie with those who invest heavily to hold NFTs for the long term in exchange for "exclusive" benefits; continuously rising NFT values also need to offer ongoing benefits to holders to sustain this current trend.