Warning! Flappy Bird’s revival seems to be about you wanting to buy cryptocurrency

The original Flappy Bird game was making $50,000 a day before its developer pulled it

The game was reportedly generating $50,000 per day for developer Dong Nguyen. Just two weeks after Flappy Bird launched on the Google Play Store, Nguyen pulled the game, stating that he was worried about how addictive it would be. It was so addictive, in fact, that after the game was pulled from the App Store and Play Store, older phones with the Flappy Bird game installed were listed on eBay for five- and six-figure sums, although eBay eventually removed these listings.

USPTO document reveals Gametech Holdings has acquired the Flappy Bird trademark. | Image Credit: Varun Biniwale

Still, the thought of Flappy Bird making a comeback had many smartphone users eagerly awaiting the opportunity to play this classic game, complete with a new easy mode, basketball mode, as well as a Battle Royale mode where the player could face off against 99 rivals.

It should be noted that Nguyen’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in any of the documents related to Flappy Bird’s return. And Biniwale, a cybersecurity researcher, noticed a few odd things about the FlappyBird.org website that announced the game’s return. The site also hosted a video, which we included with our article about Flappy Bird’s return, but it also seemed a bit too polished for a site supposedly created by Flappy Birds fans who wanted nothing more than to see the game return to smartphones.

Some websites show a link between Flappy Bird and a cryptocurrency called SOL (Solana)

Biniwale discovered the site’s community page, which included links to “Collaborations,” “Interviews,” and a press kit. Only the first one worked, leading to a page discussing Flappy Bird and the Solana blockchain platform with its native cryptocurrency SOL (which closed Friday at $137.67 and hit a record high of $260). The security researcher says, “This page seems to suggest that the original plan for the project was around cryptocurrency and ‘Web 3.0.’ Some might call these kinds of projects ‘scams.’”

New Flappy Bird Game Is Connected to Cryptocurrency SOL According to This Page Discovered by a Security Researcher | Image Source: Varun Biniwale - Warning! Flappy Bird Revival Seems Aimed at Tricking You Into Buying Cryptocurrency

The new Flappy Bird game is connected to SOL cryptography, according to this site discovered by a security researcher. | Image Credit: Varun Biniwale

Since the site was built using WordPress, the sitemap is publicly available, and many of the cited pages mention web3.0 and crypto. The first is an idea for a new version of the internet that would include blockchain technologies, a token economy, and decentralization. Biniwale found prototypes of the game, including pages that mentioned web3, crypto wallets, and more.

Image taken from TV show prototype mentions cryptocurrency wallet | Image source: Varun Biniwale - Warning! Flappy Bird revival seems to be designed to trick you into buying cryptocurrency

The image, taken from a prototype of the TV show, includes a mention of a cryptocurrency wallet. | Image Source: Varun Biniwale

So we can sadly conclude that the return of Flappy Bird is little more than the return of a game run by die-hard Flappy Bird fans. Instead, thanks to some digging, it now appears that Flappy Bird may be being used as a way to push some kind of crypto scam that could drive up the price of the SOL cryptocurrency, while SOL buyers who loaded up before the Flappy Bird revival sell it to demand. Just be careful and make sure you know exactly what you’re agreeing to before signing up for anything related to the app.