NFT gender battlefield: A feminist NFT project run by three Russian men was overthrown and taken over by the community

Just last month, Fame Lady Squad, an NFT project designed by women with 8,888 pieces to support women (claimed to be the first female avatar project in history), was readily accepted by the NFT community after its launch.

The NFT market, like many tech-centric fields, is dominated by men, so when female-led projects emerge, it’s very welcome.

The project claims to have three women behind it: Cindy and Andrea are American marketers and developers respectively, while Kelda is a Norwegian artist and "thinker" who is considered a representative figure of feminism.

The image they display to the outside world is in the form of NFT illustrations (the slim women in different outfits shown below), which users can mint and own on Ethereum.

The story was even mentioned in The New Yorker.

But behind the project was a lie.

According to the research of Russian NFT enthusiast Fedor Linnik, the leaders of the Fame Lady Squad are actually three Russian men.

They are also said to be behind other NFT collectible series and claim that these series are the same series, but in fact they are not at all.

The lie first broke through the grapevine last week and was confirmed this week.

Then the investors who had invested nearly $1.5 million in the project jointly "revolted", and the three Russian men transferred control of the project to real women, including Ashley Smith, a real estate agent from Canada.

Smith learned about the Fame Lady Squad project in July, before it was officially released, and was fascinated by the idea of ​​"empowering women in the NFT field" -

She strongly supports the founding philosophy of Fame Lady Squad, which is to "create a strong and independent female image in the NFT community."

Smith said the excitement of the project was the clear gender markers.

“The NFT and crypto world in general is very male-dominated, and I think a lot of people would like to see more diversity. People are excited about it.”

She minted several of her own Fame Lady Squad NFTs and later purchased some of the Squad’s NFTs on the secondary market.

“There was enough art to the tokens that I liked, and the price was pretty low at the time (0.05 ETH, currently around $150), so I happily bought them.”

Danielle Davis, a Minnesota resident who works nine jobs, several of which consult for other NFT projects, said she feels the same way.

“The community is so vibrant and it’s all about women’s empowerment, and that’s what attracted me to it.”

In fact, many people related to the idea of ​​female empowerment in the NFT space, and the Fame Lady Squad has received some high-profile support.

For example, Gary Vaynerchuk (an investor in star projects such as Facebook and Coinbase) once posted a tweet about it.

But then everything started to fall apart.

The development team behind Fame Lady Squad has been reluctant to answer questions on its Discord (and it now appears there's a reason for their silence).

Linnik and other Internet detectives found holes in the Fame Lady Squad story.

Linnik recalled a Russian-language Telegram chat with someone believed to be behind the Fame Lady Squad (who was using a male pseudonym at the time).

In mid-July, Linnik’s colleague Fil Makarov said in a Russian-language Telegram chat that he believed Squad was a ruse because the phrase they used — “a strong and independent woman” — was actually used in Russian to mock women.

“These people are simply taking advantage of the Western left-wing liberal agenda of protecting women’s rights.”

Linnik pointed out that at least two of the founding team behind Fame Lady Squad have lived or studied in Canada.

"I think these people understand Western society very well, that's why they can manipulate us so easily."

Last Monday, Linnik tweeted what he knew, and the three Russian parties quickly responded in an attempt to limit the reputational damage.

The next day, the project founder issued a long article to apologize for misleading the world, saying "but this does not mean this is a scam or fraud."

They have pledged to donate $100,000 from Fame Lady Squad revenue to support NFT artists and projects.

They also transferred ownership of the smart contract to Smith (who became the face of this grassroots uprising) through a third-party broker, giving her control of the entire series of NFTs.

Smith has now set up a Discord channel with Davis and others to bring the Fame Lady Squad community together and discuss next steps.

“I can’t tell you how many times people have said in a chat, ‘This is my first time buying an NFT,’ or, ‘This is my first time buying an NFT for my wife,’ ” Davis said.

"I kept thinking about those people. I couldn't let this become a regret or pain for me."

Smith believes that there are a lot of responsibilities to take on, and there are multiple decision makers involved. "I don't think of myself as the owner of this project. We are just the managers of the project."

The founder of Fame Lady Squad has previously been involved in at least nine other NFT series issuances.

Including 2,000 Black Lives Matter NFT cards and 5,555 Cyber ​​City Girls Club NFTs.

Cyber ​​City Girls Club was founded to stop anti-Asian hate. The group claims to "want to create an image of a strong, independent Asian woman" (there you go).

The project was originally developed by two women, and as the scam was unveiled, the project’s Twitter account clarified that the team actually consisted of six people, only two of whom were women (possibly friends or partners of the Squad’s founders).

The outcome of the entire incident really illustrates the importance of the community in the NFT field - community support is the direct cause of the success or failure of a project.

Smith currently faces many big and difficult problems, not the least of which is getting an NFT project built on lies back on track.

The transitional Discord that Smith built to address this problem is called Project Phoenix.

“I hope this is a story of a community’s rebirth.”