• The head of Epic Games Tim Sweeney accused cryptocurrency fraudsters of trying to cash in on the popularity of Fortnite.
• Fortnite Token responded to the accusation by stating that it does not engage in fraud, but is “a community-driven project that was created by Fortnite fans.”

Yesterday, Sweeney turned his attention to the Fortnite Token account, which was created in late 2021. The head of Epic Games left fraud warnings under several tweets and then spoke out about the situation in his account. Tim Sweeney wrote on his Twitter;

There isn’t a Fortnite cryptocurrency. The Twitter accounts promoting such a thing are a scam. Epic’s lawyers are on it. Also, shame on the cryptocurrency marketplaces that enable this kind of thing.

Despite the big, bright “F,” the Fortnite Token remained relatively invisible until today, when Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney apparently learned of a May 29 message urging to “start making NFT creations on nftoken and selling on OpenSea” and bluntly replied, “It’s a scam.”

But instead of shutting down the project, the crypto team stood its ground:

“Fortnite Token isn’t a scam cryptocurrency project,” they 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.”

In response, Sweeney stated that Fortnite Token is violating copyright because they cannot use the Fortnite name and images to promote a third-party product.

That’s not how trademarks and copyrights work though. You can’t use the Fortnite name and images without permission to market an unrelated product

Before that, the head of Epic Games left warning messages under several Fortnite Token tweets at once. All of them were about the same content. Apparently, Sweeney thought this wasn’t enough, so he later decided to speak publicly about the Fortnite cryptocurrency.

Sweeney previously shared these sentiments back in September that Epic Games isn’t “touching NFTs as the whole field is currently tangled up with an intractable mix of scams.”

He has now clarified his position;

When new technology emerges, some put it to good use, and others put it to bad use. It would be terribly shortsighted to ban an entire field of technology for such a reason.

This is consistent with Sweeney’s past stance on the issue: in October 2021, he said that while Epic would not include cryptocurrency in its games, it “would welcome games that use blockchain technology, as long as they follow relevant laws, disclose their terms and are rated for age by the appropriate group.” Epic Games declined to comment on the matter, and everything remains at the level of Sweeney’s Twitter posts.