Where did the money go?
One of the great MetaZoo mysteries. Using the power of the blockchain, we're able to reconstruct the financial flow of money from public transactions.
1636.51 Ξ
$4.7M
Secondary volume in
96.60 Ξ
$288K
→ MetaZoo Royalties
210.37 Ξ
$488K
→ Sent to Aoki
269.25 Ξ
$758K
→ Insiders cashed out
USD valued when each amount moved.
Flippers extracted 937.42 Ξ / $1.9M
| TRADER | ETH IN → OUT | REALIZED GAIN | USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19.00 Ξ → 39.53 Ξ | +30.72 Ξ | $36,647 | |
| 0.20 Ξ → 27.16 Ξ | +27.06 Ξ | $43,728 | |
| 0.00 Ξ → 24.38 Ξ | +20.87 Ξ | $29,247 | |
| 0.19 Ξ → 15.18 Ξ | +14.69 Ξ | $27,501 | |
| 11.81 Ξ → 17.46 Ξ | +14.55 Ξ | $21,358 | |
| 4.55 Ξ → 16.18 Ξ | +13.60 Ξ | $25,510 | |
| 1.71 Ξ → 13.75 Ξ | +12.04 Ξ | $34,497 | |
| 0.20 Ξ → 11.93 Ξ | +11.73 Ξ | $12,410 | |
| 0.20 Ξ → 10.94 Ξ | +10.74 Ξ | $26,571 | |
| 0.23 Ξ → 10.87 Ξ | +10.64 Ξ | $17,075 | |
| …1,540 profitable wallets total | +937.42 Ξ | $1.9M |
Treasury payout ledger
| DATE | ETH | USD | RECIPIENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-10-26 | off-chain | $214,200 | Aoki (Sotheby's, off-chain) 0xa6d3…8193Mothman 1/1 sold at Sotheby's (Natively Digital, Lot 52): $170,000 final bid + 26% buyer's premium |
| 2021-12-06 | 104.45 Ξ | $454,098 | insider / distribution 0xccc5…dd11days after the Coin Tokens raise; 60% to Coinbase 44, 10% to Coinbase 3, the rest recycled inside the insider cluster |
| 2021-12-06 | 17.93 Ξ | $57,969 | insider / cluster 0xe693…487cpaid twice (10.56 ETH on 2021-12-06, then 7.37 ETH on 2022-07-27); cashed out to Coinbase 54 and FTX/Blockfolio |
| 2021-12-18 | in-kind | $792 | Aoki (in-kind, 1 Coin Token)sent from the MetaZoo treasury 0x77b9…997c on the MetaZoo x Dim Mak collab release day. priced at the December median 0.20 Ξ (~0.2 Ξ total). |
| 2021-12-24 | 16.00 Ξ | $64,741 | splitter contract 0xd909…5265revenue machinery |
| 2022-01-11 | 89.77 Ξ | $290,824 | Aoki (main) 0xe4bb…77c4payment sent 3 days after a celebrity poker night hosted at Aoki home on 2022-01-08, where MetaZoo Coin Tokens were allegedly discussed (tx 0xe8fe…78dd) |
| 2022-01-11 | in-kind | $12,684 | Aoki (in-kind, 9 Coin Tokens)same day as the 89.77 Ξ payment above. transfers from 0x77b9…997c, IDs 994-998/1000-1001/1003-1004. priced at the January median 0.435 Ξ (~3.9 Ξ total). |
| 2022-07-27 | 130.00 Ξ | $212,646 | insider / cash-out 0x37ec…a6a3after the Beasties mint; forwarded via 0x3c33…fbf6 to Coinbase deposit addresses |
| 2022-07-27 | 7.37 Ξ | $12,055 | insider / cluster 0x08b9…0c27forwarded to an active DeFi-trading wallet where it commingled; no clean single-exchange endpoint |
| 2022-07-27 | 120.60 Ξ | $197,270 | Aoki (hub) 0xa6d3…8193 |
| 2024-01-29 | 9.50 Ξ | $22,017 | insider / shutdown-day 0x2f7e…cc6bMetaZoo shutdown day; sent straight to Coinbase 10 |
in-kind and off-chain rows are not counted in the AOKI total above.
Aoki goes on a manic $8.1M NFT buying spree
−99%
Doodles
paid ~42.98 Ξ → floor ~0.38 Ξ
−66%
CryptoPunks
paid ~93.26 Ξ → floor ~31.99 Ξ
−80%
Bored Ape Yacht Club
paid ~42.43 Ξ → floor ~8.57 Ξ
−100%
0N1 Force
paid ~13.89 Ξ → floor ~0.06 Ξ
−91%
Bored Ape Chemistry Club
paid ~23.47 Ξ → floor ~2.19 Ξ
| COLLECTION | BOUGHT | HOLDS | USD | ETH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 CryptoPunks | 7 | 5 | $1,435,751 | 652.79 Ξ |
 Doodles | 7 | 5 | $971,634 | 300.88 Ξ |
 Bored Ape Yacht Club | 7 | 7 | $996,928 | 297.00 Ξ |
 0N1 Force | 12 | 0 | $527,661 | 166.64 Ξ |
 Bored Ape Chemistry Club | 6 | 1 | $479,460 | 140.83 Ξ |
 Moonbirds | 3 | 2 | $295,996 | 99.50 Ξ |
 VeeFriends | 4 | 4 | $170,848 | 65.91 Ξ |
 OpenSea Shared Storefront | 16 | n/a | $154,277 | 55.06 Ξ |
| …757 buys total | $8.1M | 2811.60 Ξ |
ETH is fungible. No specific NFT is claimed to be bought with MetaZoo money.
Insider cash-out
269.25 Ξ → Coinbase · unknown on-chain
Fresh MetaZoo-funded wallets, no ENS/history. Traced forward, roughly 97% of this ETH cashed out to a centralized exchange (overwhelmingly Coinbase, one branch to FTX); the rest commingled into an active trading wallet.
unknown
2021-12-06104.45 Ξ
$454,098
cashed out → Coinbase
days after the Coin Tokens raise; 60% to Coinbase 44, 10% to Coinbase 3, the rest recycled inside the insider cluster
unknown
2021-12-0617.93 Ξ
$57,969
cashed out → Coinbase + FTX
paid twice (10.56 ETH on 2021-12-06, then 7.37 ETH on 2022-07-27); cashed out to Coinbase 54 and FTX/Blockfolio
unknown
2022-07-27130.00 Ξ
$212,646
cashed out → Coinbase
after the Beasties mint; forwarded via 0x3c33…fbf6 to Coinbase deposit addresses
unknown
2022-07-277.37 Ξ
$12,055
cashed out → active trading wallet
forwarded to an active DeFi-trading wallet where it commingled; no clean single-exchange endpoint
unknown
2024-01-299.50 Ξ
$22,017
cashed out → Coinbase
MetaZoo shutdown day; sent straight to Coinbase 10
Treasury money in
423.30 Ξ
$1.3M · 78%
NFT mint sales
72.81 Ξ
$209K · 13%
Royalties · OpenSea creator earnings
47.89 Ξ
$152K · 9%
Bootstrap · other
Of the 544.00 Ξ the treasury ever took in, ~78% was primary NFT mint sales. The royalties slice reached MetaZoo mostly through OpenSea’s off-chain creator-earnings payout, not a direct on-chain stream.
Treasury money out
210.37 Ξ
$488K · 39%
→ Sent to Aoki
269.25 Ξ
$758K · 50%
→ Insiders cashed out
31.58 Ξ
$93K · 6%
project costs · gas + ops
16.00 Ξ
$64K · 3%
intra-cluster · own contracts
16.71 Ξ
$44K · 3%
→ Unattributed payouts
Most of what left the treasury went to insider cash-outs (to Coinbase/FTX) and Steve Aoki. The rest is project costs (gas for contract deploys and reward mints/airdrops, plus a few token swaps), money moved between MetaZoo’s own contracts, and a small tail of unattributed transfers to unlabeled wallets.
The USD reconciliation
544.00 Ξ
$1.6M
received at receipt
515.49 Ξ
$1.4M
paid out at spend
28.43 Ξ
$87K
burned as gas fees
0.08 Ξ
$152
still held on-chain today
Because the money left near-immediately (not held through the crash), only $168K was lost to ETH’s price falling between when it arrived and when it left.
Known wallets
| WALLET | ROLE | BASIS |
|---|---|---|
Steve Aoki (main) 0xe4bbcbff51e61d0d95fcc5016609ac8354b177c4 | Aoki | Etherscan public name tag "Steve Aoki". Received the 89.77 ETH payment on 2022-01-11. |
Steve Aoki (creator / royalty hub) 0xa6d3a33a1c66083859765b9d6e407d095a908193 | Aoki | Minted the AOKI collection, is its EIP-2981 royalty recipient, and consigned the Mothman 1/1 at Sotheby's. |
MetaZoo: Deployer (Coin Tokens) 0xec843e7364ca9234271efc12e7626a7a9bdc5400 | MetaZoo | Etherscan name tag "MetaZoo: Deployer". Created the Coin Tokens contract on 2021-11-29. |
MetaZoo: Deployer (treasury) 0x77b94a55684c95d59a8f56a234b6e555fc79997c | MetaZoo | Etherscan name tag "MetaZoo: Deployer". Deployed the Beasties contract; paid all five insider wallets below. |
metazoodev.eth 0x79109a93db158f16f4c8936217ce46f21ed5dc2b | MetaZoo | ENS name metazoodev.eth. Deployed the MZOO ERC-20 token on 2023-03-16. |
MetaZoo Genesis operator 0x3dd341664b2ffeedf9be108d4fa926dedfa9a0d6 | MetaZoo | Created the Genesis 2021 contract and minted all 595 tokens. Identified by behaviour, not by a name tag. |
metaZooSale (Coin Tokens mint funnel) 0x4b2144e59f7e286d8e7b7a4cbbb94b042e2b791f | MetaZoo contract | Verified contract name metaZooSale. Coin Tokens buyers paid here; forwarded to the treasury. |
PercentSplitETH (Beasties mint funnel) 0x88524a9b2c23d869cba3466d1ce6457fb102e214 | MetaZoo contract | Verified contract name PercentSplitETH. Beasties buyers paid here; forwarded to the treasury. |
MetaZoo royalty distributor 0xd909681f6c474e14d5aff4b75513989e68ad5265 | MetaZoo contract | Received MetaZoo's OpenSea creator earnings and forwarded ~58.6 ETH to the treasury. |
Insider #1 (distribution) 0xccc55c38603ad1a1dc54db871166fa90f78edd11 | Insider | Received 104.45 ETH from the treasury on 2021-12-06; cashed out to Coinbase. Owner unknown. |
Insider #2 (cluster) 0xe693fbc0df4db03d3b75017b7a423dd38d49487c | Insider | Received 17.93 ETH from the treasury in two payments; cashed out to Coinbase and FTX. Owner unknown. |
Insider #3 (cash-out) 0x37eccdcbc448e07cb19331277aebf9b13ec5a6a3 | Insider | Received 130 ETH from the treasury on 2022-07-27; forwarded to Coinbase. Owner unknown. |
Insider #4 (cluster) 0x08b96fad98c2366f6e483de584167dd695d30c27 | Insider | Received 7.37 ETH from the treasury on 2022-07-27; commingled in an active trading wallet. Owner unknown. |
Insider #5 (shutdown day) 0x2f7eb4f5d083c5607f1f1ec278728323a84acc6b | Insider | Created on MetaZoo's shutdown day, 2024-01-29; received 9.5 ETH and sent it straight to Coinbase. Owner unknown. |