NFTMachine
Summary
NFTMachine is the online alias of Tyler Gaye, a Denver, Colorado resident who allegedly orchestrated a presale fraud in early 2021 by raising approximately $500,000 (reportedly 277 ETH from 130+ investors) for a promised NFT marketplace called opeNFT (also stylized ONFT), which was never launched. A Denver District Court judge entered a default judgment of $275,000 against Gaye in November 2022, classifying the conduct as civil theft. On-chain investigator ZachXBT has subsequently alleged Gaye continued launching new crypto projects — including Arcade DAO and Gamegear — under the alias 'scaredofboobs' without satisfying the court-ordered judgment.
Connected Entities
1 entities- + 1 more
Timeline(12 events)
2021-02-01
NFTMachine announces opeNFT via Medium as a community-owned NFT art aggregator and opens a Telegram group for investors.
2021-02-01
opeNFT presale launches: 37,500 ONFT tokens offered at $13.33/token (0.0074 ETH), targeting a $500,000 raise. Approximately 277 ETH collected from 130+ investors within days.
2021-02-22
NFTMachine allegedly spends 75 ETH (~$190,000) on personal NFT purchases — largely MoonCats — within one week of the presale closing.
2021-04-01
First signs of investor distress emerge; investors asking questions are allegedly banned from the project Telegram channel.
2021-07-01
NFTMachine claims the platform is '95% complete' and releases a mockup site after five months of delays.
2021-10-01
NFTMachine mutes the Telegram group, ceases public communication, and blocks critics. opeNFT platform never launches.
2022-02-15
Crypto investor 0xShual publishes a detailed Twitter thread marking one year since the opeNFT Telegram launch, documenting the alleged fraud and identifying Tyler Gaye as NFTMachine.
2022-05-24
BusinessDen reports that seven investors have filed a civil lawsuit against Tyler Gaye in Denver District Court, alleging he stole $500K and spent it on pixelated cat art (MoonCats NFTs).
2022-09-01
NFT Evening reports that opeNFT investors have retained lawyers after the project is widely branded a rug pull.
2022-11-09
Denver District Court Judge David Goldberg enters a default judgment against Tyler Gaye for $275,000 — comprising $55,000 restitution, $55,000 exemplary damages, and $165,000 in punitive damages for civil theft — after Gaye fails to respond to the lawsuit.
Decision Log
- hash: Hp43hFvJjGhK97bf3mw4aPhmPtYmRvf3LfjD6xUFJUkQ
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet
generated: 5/4/2026, 4:05:03 PM
last updated: 5/26/2026, 4:11:16 AM
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