The ousted co-founder of Pudgy Penguins raised $1.28 million through an NFT "money grab," sparking controversy as the smart contract code remains closed-source.

BlockBeats News, August 12, Cole Villemain, co-founder of Pudgy Penguins who was voted out by the community in January 2022, launched an NFT series called Spritehood on Robinhood Chain on the 11th. The collection consists of 44,444 pieces and was sold out in less than an hour. According to on-chain analyst 0xlaplaced, the initial paid minting started at 06:17 UTC and lasted for 53 minutes and 48 seconds. Out of the total supply, 37,430 were sold for $17 each, and 5,526 were sold for $117 each. After deducting 1,488 free mints with zero price, the total revenue amounted to approximately $1.2829 million. Villemain himself tweeted just 16 minutes into the minting, saying, "It feels good to be back. There will be haters tonight, but I don't care."

However, the source code of the NFT contract has not been verified to this day. According to Blockscout explorer on Robinhood Chain, the Spritehood Wisp ERC-721 tokens (code: WISP) have a total supply of 44,444, but the pricing and distribution mechanism lack publicly available auditable code. User HanIsRich directly claimed that the issuance was "purely a cash grab," with no infrastructure or mechanism in place to justify the 20% minting funds burn. On-chain detective ZachXBT, five years ago on August 11, 2021, published a lengthy analysis describing Villemain as a "speculator willing to deceive others at all costs." The 44,444 buyers of this NFT are currently in the dark about the specifics of future infrastructure and mechanisms, relying solely on Villemain's verbal promises.