Getting into NFTs back in 2021 was the next big thing in the crypto world. Unlike cryptocurrencies, which are fungible (so each coin is identical to the other), NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are unique and can’t be replaced. Although they might seem like cartoonish monkeys and pixelated JPGs on the surface, the ownership of NFTs is recorded on the blockchain, which makes it unique. One of the most well-known NFT projects (and at the time, astronomically expensive) is CryptoPunks, which includes over 10,000 characters with the rarest selling for over $20 million a piece. Bored Ape Yacht Club, a vast collection of hand-drawn apes, also saw individual NFTs being sold from a couple of million to over $24 million. These Yuga Labs NFTs were a personal choice of Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Steph Curry amongst others. While NFTs sold like hotcakes at the time, they also came with massive risks.
Blockchains inherently make every transaction’s detail visible on a public ledger, which leads to massive privacy concerns regarding NFTs. Asset storage is another issue: while these transactions are documented on the blockchain, assets are stored elsewhere, making them exposed to deletion, corruption, or unwanted access. And on top of that, fraudsters strive on NFTs: IP theft is always a concern, and rug pulls are pretty common as well. The center of our story is about a man who gained notoriety for his rug pull scheme, but who is Berman Jerry Nowlin? He was one of the creators of the Undead Apes NFTs, which later turned out to be a rug-pull scam. Along with his partner, Devin Alan Rhoden, he managed to cash in over $400,000, which was transferred to their personal accounts. After being convicted for his scam and being framed by his partner, he committed suicide in December 2024. In this profile article, PlasBit will give you a deep dive into the Undead Apes rug pull and the tumultuous and eventually tragic life of Berman Jerry Nowlin.
Early Life And Meeting Devin Rhoden
Born in 2003, Nowlin was often described as someone blessed with high intelligence but cursed with the “emotional maturity of a 14-year-old”. According to his mother, Deanna Ambrose, a psychiatrist assessed Nowlin’s mental state, saying that her son was diagnosed with autism. As per Ambrose, Nowlin never got into trouble, and it was clear to anyone talking to him that he was just different from the rest. Most people don’t quite know who is Berman Jerry Nowlin. He was socially awkward, spending most of his time learning how to code, playing games, and chatting with people on Discord., That’s also how Nowlin (aka. Repulse aka. Zayous) got to know Devin Rhoden (aka Denny aka Deviinz) in 2022, who was an active-duty senior airman working as a cyber analyst at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Once hitting their stride, the duo kicked off their first two NFT projects: Undead Apes and Undead Lady Apes.
Undead Apes NFTs
In 2022, Nowlin and Rhoden created a collection of NFTs, Undead Apes, and Undead Lady Apes on the Solana blockchain. Rhoden created the buzz around both token collections, spreading the word around on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Discord, quickly drumming up support for the NFTs. In the meantime, no one really knew who is Berman Jerry Nowlin as he spent most of his time on the technical aspects of the project. They became insanely successful by the spring of 2022. Initially minted at $5, their tokens peaked at $360, making the pair quite wealthy over the course of a few weeks. April came, and investor excitement skyrocketed following the announcement of Undead Tombstone, a third collection, about to be released. Understandably, seeing the success of Nowlin’s and Rhoden’s previous projects, investors flocked to the third token’s release. But the hype was short-lived. The project was quickly abandoned, leaving investors in the dark to the tune of $135,000 in financial damages. Discord and X pages were removed, and roadmaps abandoned, leaving little trace of the pair’s scam. Allegations claim that the fraudster duo used a technique called chain hopping to get away with the money. While it can be done legitimately as well, in the case of Undead Tombstone, it was not the case. Nowlin and Rhoden moved everything from Solana to Ethereum, then split the cryptocurrency into almost equal halves. They later bought US dollars with their tokens and wired the money to their own bank accounts. They essentially cashed out and jumped ship without a word.
Indictment And Verdict
Returning to our story, Berman Jerry Nowlan’s name and deeds caught the attention of law enforcement following the rug pull. Investigators got to Rhoden first through one of his fellow airmen. He pleaded guilty to federal charges and he testified against Nowlan in court. Nowlin’s attorney argued that his client was not aware of the scheme and that he was practically only responsible for the technical aspects of the project, essentially shifting the blame to Rhoden, who drummed up support for the NFTs and was aware that he was making empty promises. Federal prosecutors, however, presented evidence of Nowlan and Rhoden discussing the theft and its details online. There was little wriggling room for the defense. Compassion alone couldn’t help prosecutors understand who is Berman Jerry Nowlin and why he did what he did. The Justice Department said that the duo made “exaggerated, misleading, and outright false statements to investors” about Undead Tombstone. Nowlan was eventually convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a Tampa court. After testifying against his codefendant, Rhoden was sentenced to 5 years of probation in November 2024, while Nowlan’s sentencing was scheduled for January 2025. He was facing up to 5 years in federal prison while also being ordered by the court to repay the financial damages caused by their scheme. Nowlin, sadly, could never hear his sentence.
Berman Jerry Nowlin Suicide: A Sad End To The Story
Although we probably won’t quite grasp who is Berman Jerry Nowlin, based on his family’s accounts, it’s possible to understand the circumstances leading up to the unfortunate event. The Berman Jerry Nowlin suicide happened on December 21, 2024, weeks before his sentencing, with his family attributing it to the mental and emotional pressure of the case and stating he was wrongfully exploited by co-founder Devin Alan Rhoden. As stated earlier, Nowlin was diagnosed with autism and spent most of his free time notoriously online. Following his arrest, he was barred from using the internet, so his previously blossoming online life was reduced to a flip phone only capable of texting and calls. This restriction prevented him from gathering evidence to support some of his claims regarding his trying to get the money back from his investors. Even worse, this also meant that he was denied entry to the only place where he could socialize. His mom also added that Nowlin wasn’t as much afraid of jail time itself - instead, he worried that the sentence would leave a lasting badge of shame on his name, essentially preventing him from working in the field of tech at any point in the future. To add insult to injury, his co-founder and then-codefendant Rhoden testifying against him to save his own bacon could’ve also contributed to the mental anguish he experienced in his last months.
The Berman Jerry Nowlin Scam
The hype around Undead Apes and Undead Lady Apes was real. Investors rightfully believed that, based on the success of the duo’s previous two projects, Undead Tombstone would be a similarly stellar endeavor. But what was exactly the Berman Jerry Nowlin scam? It was a scam in which he hyped up a series of NFTs called Undead Apes, artificially inflating their value, only to later “rug pull” buyers and walk away with his share of the profits. As the name suggests, this is when a project teases investors with utilities, rewards, big-name collabs, only to “pull the rug” and leave with the money right after the mint. It all happens in a matter of days, or in extreme cases, mere hours. Scammers usually snag everything by chain hopping: this is the process of moving tokens from one blockchain to another. Rug pulls can be “regular” (as explained above) and “slow”. The latter is when the project makes similarly empty promises, but maintains the lies over a long period of time. It asks for patience from investors, teases improvements, and essentially builds on the idea that “good things take time”. Although the Berman Jerry Nowlan Scam proved to be a “regular” rug pull, it doesn’t matter which one you’re falling victim to as they are some of the most feared scams for crypto investors.
How To Avoid a Rug Pull In 4 Simple Steps
But how can you personally avoid a rug and pull? And how can you secure your crypto? Although there’s no bulletproof method, you can always take PlasBit’s advice and watch out for the following:
- Avoid tokens held by only a few. If a token’s majority is owned by only a handful of people, it’s a sure sign that something is fishy. You can always keep an eye on the project, though. If the token count is split more healthily amongst more than just a few dozen wallets, it might be safer to get aboard.
- Double-check the contract. You’ll find a handful of tools online that help you analyze any project and filter out scammy codes. This might be tough to manage, but it is worth the effort.
- Only buy if coin liquidity has been locked for a while. If the majority of liquidity has been unlocked, it should raise the alarm bell: legit projects incentivize you to lock your liquidity as it increases their own project’s credibility.
- Do your research. New projects can go ballistic but can also crash spectacularly. And then some can be rug pull schemes. The best you can do is spend time reading about the founders. Who’s running the project? If the team is transparent about their own background, chances are that it’s safe to invest.
Berman Jerry Nowlin Rug Pull Scheme
The road leading up to the fraud is one filled with empty promises. Building on the established reputation of their previous two projects, Undead Ape and Undead Lady Ape, Nowlin and Rhoden hyped up the market without backing up any of their claims. In the Berman Jerry Nowlin Rug Pull, he and his colleague ran an NFT scam by falsely promising rewards, big-name partnerships, and special uses for a new NFT collection and then sold the NFTs at high prices, pulled a rug pull and deleted all contact information and social media while moving the scam profits to other platforms. Minting 632 NFTs for a grand total of $135,000, Nowlin and Rhoden vanished into thin air, leaving investors with no money and unfulfilled promises.
The Most Notorious Crypto Scams
The duo’s rug pull is not without precedent, however. Here’s a compilation of the most notorious scams in Web3 history:
- AnubisDAO (total damages: $58 million): A classic rug pull scheme, AnubisDAO launched on October 28th, 2021, promising investors a decentralized, free-floating currency backed by a handful of assets. The background of the project was more than hazy from the get-go. They had no website, no white papers, and all their devs went by pseudonyms, yet they managed to turn their project into an overnight sensation. Investors got the project’s ANKH token in exchange for chipping in AnubisDAO’s liquidity pool, but their joy was short-lived: barely a day after the launch, all $58 million dollars held in wrapped Ethereum (wETH) vanished and moved to different addresses.
- Thodex (total damages: $2 billion): If you thought AnubisDAO made the Undead Apes rug pull seem like peanuts, you’ve seen nothing. Thodex was a Turkish crypto exchange that suddenly barred investors from withdrawing funds. CEO Faruk Fatih Özer fled Turkey, leaving almost 400,000 people scammed and with over $2 billion in his pockets. He was later captured and sentenced to 11,196 years in prison. The twist? He’s denying allegations, and his legal team is now pushing for leniency regarding the sentencing. Prosecutors now estimate the financial damages to be less severe with a ballpark of $43 million.
- OneCoin (total damages: $4.4 billion): You can’t have a rug pull compilation without Dr. Ruja Ignatova’s (aka. the Cryptoqueen) scam. Marketed as a Bitcoin competitor, OneCoin didn’t even have a blockchain and still managed to steal over $4 billion, damaging tens of thousands of investors. Ignatova vanished without trace and is still on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
- $HAWK (total damages: $1.3 million): Although the jury is still out regarding Hailey Welch aka. Hawk Tuah girl rug pull, this scam serves as a good lesson to future investors putting their blind faith into projects based on fame. Welch became famous with a meme but soon turned her newly found stardom into a business. After developing a dating app and launching her podcast, she kicked off $HAWK, her own cryptocurrency. The memecoin rocketed and then crashed spectacularly just within minutes, and later it turned out that 97% of all assets were held by just 10 wallets. Welch denies allegations and insists that snipers were responsible for the fiasco.
- $SQUID (total damages: $3.3 million): Remember when Squid Game became a global hit? A token poised to build on the renown of the series, $SQUID promised investors a revolutionary online game that earns players more tokens. However, problems soon began to emerge once prices skyrocketed: investors realized that they cannot sell their tokens. Soon enough, Squid Coin’s value crash-landed, and developers left without a word - and with around $3.38 million. Their website disappeared along with their social media accounts, and the devs essentially re-enacted the plot of the series by cashing in while leaving everyone else in the cold.
- Frosties NFT (total damages: $1.1 million): It all started with an NFT collection of 8,888 ice-cream-inspired characters. The hype was massive: a metaverse game and staking mechanism lured in throngs of investors to the project. After selling NFTs worth over $1 million, the founders pulled the rug, transferring everything to a set of external wallets. The duo was still hungry, though. They were about to launch a second scam, but authorities tracked them down, arrested them in Los Angeles, and charged them for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which made Frosties one of the first NFT scams to ever face prosecution.
NFTs: A Worthwhile Investment Or a Surefire Way to Get Scammed?
Here at PlasBit we believe in sane investments. Still, in the crypto world, people keep losing money due to haphazard endeavors: NFTs boomed back in 2021 but the bubble quickly burst, with an eye-popping 97% drop in daily trade volume. Getting into it today is not the right call as NFTs are worthless. They do not possess any real-life use and are now marked as a fading trend in the ever-growing tomes of Web3. So where to put your money? Anywhere as long as it does have a real-life utility and comes from a credible source. Remember: researching the latter is a strenuous task, but it’s worth the effort and you will certainly thank yourself for avoiding yet another rug pull scheme.
