NFT project founder DNP3 admits to gambling away user funds

Quick Take

  • DNP3, the pseudonym of the founder of the Goobers NFT collection and other web3 projects, admitted to gambling away user funds.
  • The founder blamed a gambling addiction.  
  • DNP3 did not respond to The Block’s request to clarify the amount gambled, but the The Block Research estimated the amount to be in the millions. 

The founder of Goobers NFT, who goes by the name DNP3, blamed a gambling addiction for why he gambled and lost user funds.  

"Over the last year I got incredibly addicted to gambling," he wrote. "Every dollar I could find I would put into Stake in hopes of winning big. Even when the big wins did happen it wasn’t enough. Eventually I lost everything. In addition to my own life savings, I also irresponsibly used investor funds to try and 'get my money back' from the casino, which was wrong for so many reasons."

He added on Twitter that it "started with a sponsored stream and unleashed an addiction I never knew I had."

DNP3 is the founder of the NFT project Goobers, which launched in September 2021 and amassed a 968 ETH total trading volume. At its peak, the project's floor price was 55.25 ETH on Feb. 20, 2022 before falling to 0.02 ETH on Jan 3. 

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

DNP3 did not respond to The Block's request to clarify the amount of money used for gambling. However, The Block Research estimated that millions of dollars worth of funds were gambled. 

DNP3 is also the founder of Gridcraft Network, a play-to-earn web3 game, and the charity-focused cryptocurrency CluCoin. In addition, he streams on the live streaming platform Twitch to more than 251,000 followers. 


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

Editor

To contact the editors of this story:
Madhu Unnikrishnan at
[email protected]
Michael McSweeney at
[email protected]