Non-fungible token (NFT) company Pixel Vault is under fire for its involvement in what appears to be a roughly $3.5 million rug pull scheme involving its founder and former CEO. In the latest turn of events, the company announced on Wednesday that it has removed Sean Gearin, also known as GFunk, from his position as CEO. The project did not provide details about the alleged rug pull, but stated that the now ex-CEO’s “actions are under review.”

GFunk has been accused by multiple NFT community commentators and former partners on X of misleading investors for personal profit. Specifically, GFunk allegedly encouraged investors to to rotate the ecosystem’s PUNKS token — which represents fractionalized ownership in Pixel Vault's CryptoPunks collection — into a new token, dubbed GG. The capital rotation occurred between when GG launched in December 2023, and up to the time of the auction of the company’s CryptoPunks collection in 2025. GG is the official token of RebootGG, which is under the Pixel Vault ecosystem umbrella.

Simultaneously, GFunk allegedly accumulated large amounts of PUNKS, just in time for the company’s CryptoPunks vault to be auctioned off for 930 ETH, or $3.4 million, on June 5, leaving GFunk personally with a significant amount of the proceeds.

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