Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says a newly-announced cryptocurrency called Fortnite Token (opens in new tab) is “a scam,” and warned that the company is preparing legal action to shut it down. The creators of Fortnite Token have pushed back, however, describing it as a fan-created project “with no specified owner or company structure behind it.”
Fortnite Token first appeared at the end of 2021, and there was no mistaking its attempt to tie itself to Epic’s mega-hit battle royale:
Despite that big, bright “F,” Fortnite Token maintained a relatively low-profile presence until today, when Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney apparently caught wind of a May 29 invitation to “start minting your NFT creations on nftoken site and sell on OpenSea,” and replied bluntly, “That’s a scam (opens in new tab).”
But rather than pulling the plug and heading for the hills, the crypto-team stood its ground. “Fortnite Token isn’t a scam cryptocurrency project,” it replied. “Instead, this is a fair-launch, community-driven, Fortnite game fans-created cryptocurrency project with no specified owner or company structure behind it or a CEO deciding on its future.”
Sweeney, who seems to have a lot of free time on his hands for a guy who’s the CEO and principal shareholder of a multi-billion-dollar company with, one would assume, a fairly beefy legal department, picked up the gauntlet. “That’s not how trademarks and copyrights work though,” he answered. “You can’t use the Fortnite name and images without…
