Overview

Cryptoland is a proposed project headed by cryptocurrency enthusiasts to purchase an existing Fijian island and develop it into a haven for fellow cryptocurrency enthusiasts. After the project drew the attention of a Twitter user outside of the crypto community, it attracted intense mockery, particularly the project's 3D-animated video pitching the concept to potential investors. Despite many thinking the video was a satire of cryptocurrency, the "Cryptoland" project is real, but multiple details about the project raised alarms that it was a potential scam or, if not a scam, a potential humanitarian crisis, causing it to draw comparisons to Fyre Festival.

Background

The Cryptoland project was first announced via press release on November 4th, 2021,^[1] though the videos explaining the project went up on YouTube in an unlisted form prior to the press release.^[2] The project aims to purchase a real island in Fiji for the purpose of hosting cryptocurrency enthusiasts. It started with the announced sale of 10,000 NFTs, 60 of which would be tied to parcels of land on the island. The project was founded by Max Olivier and Helena Lopez.^[3]

Shortly after the project's announcement, YouTuber Kyle Chasse published a video showing how he'd purchased a plot of land on Cryptoland (shown below).

Developments

On January 4th, 2022, Cryptoland went viral outside of the cryptocurrency community when Twitter user Molly White shared the presentation video, providing a lengthy thread on her opinion of the video and facets of the project she deemed suspicious.^[4] Her first tweet gained over 3,200 retweets and quote-tweets as well as 8,400 likes (shown below).

Though White called the video a satire, further tweets show her pointing out suspicious aspects of the endeavor. For starters, the video claims the Fijian island, Nananu-i-cake, has already been purchased by the project, yet the island is still listed for sale for $12 million online.^[5] Also, the project's 34-page "Why Paper" raised concerns about the basic infrastructure of the island, as it pointed out that basic services like laundry and garbage collection will be housed on the mainland.^[6]

White and others asked questions about the project in the Discord servers, and all reported that any negativity or difficult questions were brushed away and ignored (example shown below).^[7][8]

There were also concerns raised about how the project could possibly have the funds to operate a supposed luxury resort island. The parcels of land each sell for roughly $1 million. The average price of the 10,000 NFTs that are part of the "Cryptolanders" collection sell for roughly $500 each.

The numerous red flags led many commenters to fear the Cryptoland project was a scam or a potential humanitarian crisis. The Next Web^[9] wrote:

From the evidence in front of me, I can only arrive at two potential hypotheses. The first is that this is a scam. The people behind Cryptoland will get as much cash as possible before shutting down and disappearing with the money.
The second is they truly believe in this project and are dangerously misguided. If this is the case, it’s likely Cryptoland will end up as a humanitarian crisis that makes Fyre Festival look like a walk in the park.

Related Memes

Don't Be Shy, Go Ahead And Try

Don't Be Shy, Go Ahead And Try refers to a clip from the Cryptoland press release video where an anthropomorphic piece of cryptocurrency shows a man a pool filled with Bitcoins and tells him to "go ahead and try" swimming in it, playing into the comedy trope of rich characters swimming in their money. The clip became the subject of edits on YouTube in late January and early February 2022, often adding clips of characters swimming in money from other media properties after the line is spoken.

Search Interest

External References