Utah-based entrepreneur Travis Bott launched Meta Labs Agency in late March, creating what critics call an NFT Ponzi factory. This new venture follows the $17.5 million generated by his earlier Meta Bounty Hunters scheme, which launched in February.
Meta Bounty Hunters first appeared February 26th. It involved selling 8888 digital "Star Wars knockoff" cartoon NFTs, each priced at $2000. Affiliates of iBuumerang, a multi-level marketing company, heavily promoted the scheme through its owner, Holton Buggs.
The structure of Meta Bounty Hunters included an MLM opportunity, which operated as a pyramid scheme. On top of this, the company promised "weekly reflection payouts." These payouts, sourced from new investor funds, turned Meta Bounty Hunters into a Ponzi scheme. Travis Bott publicly stated Meta Bounty Hunters generated $17.5 million in revenue.
The Meta Bounty Hunters NFT collection is traded on OpenSea. Observers suggest a small group of insiders may be artificially inflating the floor price, currently 2.29 ETH or approximately $4028. Outside this specific market, the broader NFT trading volume experienced a 92% decline from its September peak, as reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
Bott likely recognized the profitability of the initial token sales. He then launched Meta Labs Agency in late March. A May 22nd press release from Meta Labs Agency described its services: an in-house team of creatives, designers, and artists with Web3 experience assists with NFT launches. The agency claims over ten years of Web3 experience, mint access to more than ten blockchain networks, and expertise in smart contracts and optimizing gas fees.
Travis Bott, CEO of Meta Labs Agency, stated the company's focus on "unique utility and providing value back to the holder." He added, "One of the things we identified was the use of proceeds and making sure the proceeds from mint were going to be deployed in a way that was going to benefit the community." Bott and his team are not mentioned on Meta Labs Agency's public website.
Attached to Meta Labs Agency is "Meta Labs Agents," which duplicates the "reflections" Ponzi scheme seen in Meta Bounty Hunters. The new Meta Labs Agents offers investment positions at a lower price point. A $300 investment grants access to a smaller reflections pool. A "Secret Agent Collection" position, priced at $1700, promises returns from "large reflections." Five $300 positions can be traded in for a Secret Agent position, totaling $1500, suggesting the $1700 direct investment cost includes marketing.
Bott's new NFT Ponzi operation aims for a broader reach, marketing 30,000 $300 positions and 5000 $1700 positions. This could potentially generate another $17.5 million, though the actual amount collected might be lower due to the trade-in option for Secret Agent positions.
Beyond the central Ponzi mechanism, Meta Labs Agents lists several "coming soon" NFT projects. These include "Crypto Chads," which appears to target insecure males, and "Nomad by Ganga," associated with Los Angeles tattoo artist Joaquin Ganga Lopez. Another project, "Lions Not Sheep," is linked to a right-wing apparel company. Its NFT collection also features cartoon art aimed at insecure males.
Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Lions Not Sheep and its owner Sean Whalen. The FTC complaint accused Whalen of falsely claiming his imported apparel was "Made in USA." The complaint alleged Whalen posted a video on social media in October 2020, showing him ripping out origin tags from clothing imported from China and replacing them with "Made in USA" tags. Whalen settled the FTC's allegations with a $211,335 judgment consent agreement.
Meta Bounty Hunters Season 2 is also referenced on Meta Labs Agency's website, suggesting Bott plans to continue engaging with his original investor base. The core of Bott's NFT operations, the "reflections," are simply returns derived from new investor funds, a classic Ponzi scheme structure applied to NFT collections. This progression from Meta Bounty Hunters to Meta Labs Agency points to a full-scale Ponzi factory, without the MLM component, potentially increasing Bott's direct proceeds.
Travis Bott operates from Utah in the United States. Neither Bott nor Meta Labs Agency are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), despite offering what appear to be passive investment opportunities through their NFT schemes. On a June 6th iBuumerang webinar, Holton Buggs stated he "launched" Meta Bounty Hunters, though he has not publicly acknowledged any suspected ownership stake in Meta Labs Agency.