A Fox’s Scam

How to avoid crypto token scams

Watching and playing sports are two very different things. Luckily, this Finance Bro is blessed to be able to enjoy both activities whenever he wants. One sport that I’ve been watching a lot lately is basketball, which led me to De’Aaron Fox. Don’t even…The point is he seems like a nice guy. The man even has his own NFT project called “SwipaTheFox.” A tad unctuous for my tastes, but it’s workable with great execution and marketing. Unfortunately, I was right, and it was all a bit too greasy.

You’re probably wondering how anyone is supposed to know this would’ve happened? Well, in this short public service announcement (PSA), I’d like to provide you with 3 things all good crypto investors must do, so that their money is well invested and managed.

1. Know your customer (KYC): The banking industry and all financial institutions use this set of standards to check or identify their clients and customers. I recommend you do the same. The goal here is to establish trust. To start, ask yourself if the project creators are worthy of your money. Even if you believe in the vision or idea of the project, if the developers aren’t capable, then it all will crumble. My suggestion is to try to learn as much as you can about the founders and the team around them. In the case of De’Aaron Fox¹, my suspicion is in his schedule and experience. He’s playing ball at the highest level. Being the face of a franchise at 24 years of age is very time-consuming and not an easy task. I suspect the NFT idea was brought up by his entourage and he just said yes. The problem is his NFTs revolve around him. They need him to be there, otherwise, it doesn’t work.
2. Progress and Execution: In crypto, hundreds of projects are created every day. Somewhere between 99 and 100 percent of these will not exist by year’s end. Unfortunately, most are due to scams called rug pull — when the creators of the project take investors’ money and disappear, leaving the project worthless. One way to combat this is by checking their whitepaper for a road map. Making sure that their actions line up with their objectives and vision is a great way to verify the legitimacy of the project. In the case of De’Aaron Fox², Discord seems to be the main source of communication regarding the NFT project. Notice how spotty that whole process was for Fox. If this Finance Bro had invested, I would’ve been out after the second strike.
3. Engage with the Community: Arguably the hardest job of an investor. This sounds counterintuitive, but it’s truly the best way to know if a project will make it or not. How does interacting with random people all over the world help you sus out scams? Let me explain. All legitimate projects start out with the creators or developers gaining support from their friends and family (people that believe in them). The trickle-down effect, a marketing term, is how good, strong crypto project communities grow. If there are bad actors in the community, these believers will push them out. But you’d just have to allocate some time to figure that out. Some avenues: Social media, AMAs, news outlets. In the case of De’Aaron Fox³, it seems his team wasn’t able to come through for him or that he just didn’t possess the insights to put together a legitimate team. Either way, being the star of a franchise seems more daunting than it looks for him.

At the end of the day, investing is a business that requires sagacity and a bit of wiliness. I hope my advice imparts you “apes” with wisdom you can use in your next venture. To the moon—my friend — to the moon.