Australian crypto influencer Alex Saunders is once again in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. The Nuggets News CEO is being panned by his followers for raising nearly $57,000 from questionable NFT sales -- which were meant to finance a virtual community headquarters on Decentraland. 
<h2>Alex Saunders Criticized for Shady NFT Sales and Failed Virtual HQ Launch</h2>
Crypto celebrity Alex Saunders, who is already facing legal action for failed repayment of multiple debts to a New Zealand investor, is once again at the center of controversy. This time Saunders has comes under fire from his own followers, who are asking for refunds from the sale of 100 NFTs, minted to fund a community headquarters on virtual <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/virtual-real-estate-in-ether-metaverse-game-decentraland-sold-for-913k">metaverse</a> Decentraland. 

In November 2020, Saunders released 100 non-fungible tokens -- each of which was priced for one Ether token (worth $777 at the time) -- that would grant their holders exclusive access to the Nugget News community headquarters to be built in an online world.

Saunders ended up selling all the tokens within weeks and generated $57,000 for developing the virtual HQ. However, according to an <a href="https://www.afr.com/technology/crypto-influencer-faces-more-angry-backers-over-shady-nft-sale-20210808-p58gx7" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">August 16 report</a> from the Australian Financial Review (AFR), the influencer has failed to compensate the Spanish development firm, Polyagonal Mind, contracted to build the project. Additionally, the report said that Polyagonal Mind quoted Saunders $10,000 for the job and sent a contract, which was never returned.

“It wasn’t a big job but we finished building it and then the date of launch was pushed back and pushed back,” Polyagonal Mind CEO Daniel Garcia added.

After Garcia came to know of Saunder’s other controversies, his firm decided to scrap the project from Decentraland and make its code open-source.

“When we learned of all these other problems Alex has been having, we have drawn a line under this one and let it go. We don’t want to be associated with this kind of activity,” Garcia stated.
<h2>Legal Troubles Mount for Saunders Amid More Revelations</h2>
The latest NFT accusations indicate growing legal troubles for Saunders, who is already facing lawsuits for his previous fundraising efforts. The crypto influencer is currently tied to two separate schemes of misappropriation, one of which is being heard in the supreme court of Victoria. He is also being accused of siphoning funds from his Decentral Bank project -- for which he raised $11 million -- to his personal wallets and crypto derivatives exchange FTX.

Crypto Influencer Alex Saunders Faces Backlash for Questionable NFT Sales

Crypto influencer Alex Saunders is being panned by his followers for raising $57,000 from questionable NFT sales last year.

Divya is a postgraduate from Jawaharlal Nehru University specializing in International Relations and a professional writer with more than 5 years of experience writing for the web. She is an avid reader interested in the global financial system and the effects of decentralization. At Cryptoknowmics, she hopes to deliver clear and understandable content to inform readers about the latest events in the crypto sector.

Crypto Influencer Alex Saunders Faces Backlash for Questionable NFT Sales

Top Picks