PantherPunkz.io

@_CXMZ @ioutallscams @riskgains @Pauly0x @JackDorsey0x @CXMZ_paparazzi He should be in jail. Straight to jail… Someone needs to gorilla tape his hairy ass cheeks together. He deserves an abusive gf that cucks him in front of his friends and denies him intimacy in private. There is so much to be said about this cancerous polyp of human being.

@ApeleyRick @_CXMZ pic.x.com/MMwbf1Z0sY

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@_CXMZ L.I.G it!!! Let it go!! Let it go!! pic.x.com/NLWppon3ps

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@_CXMZ When you meet me at an event you won’t forget me…. Or at least you won’t forget the green glasses… LFG!!! pic.x.com/ll0MEaFDTd

@_CXMZ I won’t be OK until we get back to the old school.

@_CXMZ I haven’t been around forever …. But I’ve been here long enough. x.com/PantherPunkz/s…

@_CXMZ I collect being blocked by scammers/deuchebags better than NFTs. I’m here for all this tea. What does a scammer do when a real builder is onto them?

NFT artist exploitation became a defining feature of the 2021–2023 NFT boom-and-bust cycle. What started as a promised revolution—blockchain giving digital artists direct ownership, verifiable provenance, and automatic royalties on every resale—quickly turned into one of the most documented cases of creator predation in recent art history. The “shooting fish in a barrel” trope you referenced in the propaganda-style line drawing captures it perfectly: a long line of opportunistic project founders (the shooters) targeting eager, often inexperienced NFT artists and collectors (the fish), with the waterside huckster holding the “show me your fish!” sign symbolizing the endless recruitment of new artists via hype, Discord servers, and promises of “community” and “utility.” 1. The Promise (2020–Early 2021) NFTs were sold to artists as a fix for the traditional art world’s problems. No more galleries taking 50% cuts, no more reliance on physical sales, and—most importantly—smart-contract royalties that would pay creators a percentage (often 5–10%) every time their work resold on the secondary market. Early platforms like SuperRare pushed for a 10% industry standard. High-profile wins like Beeple’s $69 million sale at Christie’s in March 2021 created a gold-rush mentality. Artists were told they could finally earn recurring income from their digital work. Many jumped in, minting 1/1 pieces or contributing to PFP (profile-picture) collections. 2. The Exploitation Mechanisms The reality was far darker. Exploitation happened in several overlapping ways: • Art Theft & Unauthorized Minting
Scammers routinely stole artists’ work from Twitter, DeviantArt, or Instagram, minted it as NFTs without permission, and sold it. OpenSea itself admitted that roughly 80% of the NFTs on its platform at one point were fakes or plagiarized. Dedicated watchdog accounts like @NFTtheft catalogued thousands of cases. Artists often discovered their work being flipped for thousands while they received nothing—and platforms were slow or unwilling to remove the thefts. • Rug Pulls by Project Founders
This was the most common “fish-in-a-barrel” play. A founder (or small team) would: 1. Hire or partner with artists (often for a flat fee or “exposure”). 2. Launch a hyped collection with roadmaps, Discord hype, influencer shills, and promises of “utility” (metaverse land, events, etc.). 3. Sell out the mint (founders frequently reserved the best or most valuable tokens for themselves). 4. Disappear with the ETH, abandoning the project.
Academic studies identified thousands of rug pulls— one 2023 paper flagged 7,487 confirmed cases using on-chain data. Artists who had contributed art were left holding worthless tokens and no further payments. Even established brands and celebrities were accused of similar tactics. • Royalty Evasion & Platform Policy Shifts
Royalties were never truly enforceable at the protocol level—marketplaces had to voluntarily honor them. When competition heated up in 2022–2023, new platforms like Blur offered zero-royalty trading to attract volume. In August 2023, OpenSea (the dominant marketplace) made creator royalties optional for new collections, later extending the change across the board. Sellers could simply choose not to pay the artist. This removed the main financial incentive that had drawn many artists into NFTs in the first place. 
Artists who had priced primary sales lower expecting future royalty streams were suddenly cut out of the secondary market entirely. • Uneven Economics & “Exposure” Deals
Many PFP projects paid artists a one-time fee (or nothing) to generate thousands of trait combinations, then the founders and early insiders reaped millions from mints and flips. Smart-contract bugs, wash trading, and insider minting further concentrated wealth at the top. When the market crashed in 2022, the speculative bubble burst, leaving most artists with devalued portfolios and no recurring income.