The floor price of Eternal Beings nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, plunged after affiliated celebrity rapper Lil Uzi Vert deleted his promotional posts about the project.
The Solana-based NFT project consists of 11,111 computer-generated alien avatar NFTs that feature similar traits to Lil Uzi Vert, such as hair, tattoos and fashion style. The NFTs were minted at a price of 2.5 SOL, worth roughly $337 at the time of writing.
While it is unclear if the popular rapper was on the team behind Eternal Beings or working purely as a paid promoter, the 26-year-old year apparently deleted his promo posts after the project’s launch on Tuesday.
The NFT collection sold out at the 2.5 SOL mint price; however, after Lil Uzi Vert scrubbed his Twitter of mentions of the project, the floor price dipped to 1.67 SOL ($225), according to data from secondary marketplace SolanArt.
The Eternal Beings community — consisting of around 44,000 Discord members — was sent into a panic after spotting that Lil Uzi Vert had removed all mentions, which led some to fear that the NFT drop was a “scam” or “rug pull.”
Screenshots of the project’s Discord channel raise further questions, as the team’s initial damage control consisted of a moderator launching into a rant full of expletives that urged the “pure idiots all fudding at once” to not panic, as the “floor will be raised and big money will start to pour in.”
This is what was just posted as an official announcement in the Lil Uzi NFT discord pic.twitter.com/CXs3w9BSoh
— BIG DOG (@MoonOverlord) September 28, 2021
This was soon followed up with an apology for the lack of professionalism, while the team stressed that Lil Uzi Vert has only temporarily walked back from the project so that he can focus on working on the launch of his new album.
According to the roadmap on the project’s website, the team will seek out further celebrity ambassadors in the future, provide an exclusive Lil Uzi Vert live performance, launch merchandise and drop a new collection of “Baby Uzi” NFTs.
In one of Lil Uzi Vert’s deleted tweets, available on Internet archive WayBack Machine, he said that the NFTs would reach a minimum floor of 6 SOL ($810) “easily,” which may be something the eagle-eyed United States Securities and Exchange Commission could take issue with, if the regulator determines the tweet to be the promotion of an investment product.
Related: Crypto Twitter cries foul after noticing NBA star John Wall’s NFT has a Fortnite background
At the time of writing, the Eternal Beings Twitter account has been suspended, while the project’s Instagram account is still active.
A recent survey found that retail investors have a willingness to follow crypto investment advice from celebrities and influencers. On Sept. 21, Morning Consult published a survey of 2,200 U.S. adults that found that 45% of crypto users would be more likely to seek exposure to a digital asset if it were endorsed by a celebrity, compared to just 20% of participants overall.