ZkSNARKs NFT project accused of extracting $17M from investors with minimal utility

A 10,000-piece profile picture NFT collection built on the Zcash blockchain is facing serious allegations after on-chain investigator ZachXBT accused the project of raising approximately $17 million through a blind auction while delivering virtually no utility or ecosystem development. The zkSNARKs NFT project, which borrows its name from the zero-knowledge proof technology underpinning Zcash’s privacy features, sold 8,000 NFTs at a uniform clearing price of 1.5 ZEC each. That works out to a mint fee of roughly $2,000 per NFT. The auction numbers tell a story The blind auction format attracted 16,971 bids for those 8,000 available NFTs. Total volume clocked in at approximately 25,305 ZEC, which translates to about $36.94 million at prevailing prices. Unsuccessful bidders received refunds totaling around 13,309 ZEC, roughly $19.43 million. That leaves the project sitting on approximately $17.5 million in proceeds, a war chest that ZachXBT argues has no clear deployment plan. The project’s structure adds another layer of concern. A 10% team allocation means the creators reserved 1,000 NFTs for themselves, free of charge, before the public sale even began. On top of that, a 5% royalty...