A newly formed decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) comprised of Azuki enthusiasts has put forth a proposal to reclaim 20,000 Ether from Zagabond, the founder of the renowned NFT brand Azuki. The proposal, initiated on July 2, aims to hire a lawyer and take legal action against Zagabond, also known as Alex Xu, for allegedly engaging in fraudulent activities across multiple projects.
The DAO seeks to retrieve $39 million worth of ETH that was acquired through Azuki’s controversial “Elementals” collection launch. The recovered funds would then be allocated back to the DAO to support the growth of the broader platforms community.
As of now, 88.11% of the DAO’s Bean tokens have voted in favor of the clawback proposal, while 11.9% have voted against it. The voting period is set to conclude on July 3 at 6:38 am UTC. However, skepticism has arisen regarding the legitimacy of the newly formed DAO and its connection to the platform’s project. Some holders claim to have no prior knowledge of AzukiDAO and suspect it may be either fake or driven by malicious intentions.
Further scrutiny arises from the recent creation of the Bean token contract, as evidenced by data from Etherscan. The associated Twitter page was established in June 2023, and the Discord channel currently has only 116 members. These factors have raised doubts about the authenticity and intentions of the recently formed community.
Azuki NFTs controversy
Criticism has been mounting against the Azuki team since the launch of their “Azuki Elementals” collection on June 27. The collection was first hinted at during the platforms event held in Las Vegas on June 23, with a small portion of the 20,000 NFTs airdropped to select Azuki holders. The remaining NFTs were made available for purchase on June 27, with a 20-minute pre-sale window for existing Azuki NFT holders and “BEANZ” token holders.
However, the sale did not proceed publicly as the entire collection was quickly sold in private sales within 15 minutes. The controversial launch generated a total of $38 million for the team. The backlash stemmed from various issues, including the short pre-sale window, technical difficulties on the overloaded website, and criticisms of the art’s lack of originality.
NFT holders also expressed concerns that the introduction of 20,000 new NFTs would diminish the value of existing ones in the Azuki collection. Matters escalated when the project team reportedly transferred 20,000 ETH from the wallet shortly after minting the collection, further fueling the controversy.
