Well-known crypto influencer Ben Armstrong, aka “BitBoy Crypto,” recently filed a lawsuit against fellow YouTuber Erling Mengshoel Jr., aka Atozy. While the former claims that Atozy’s eight-month-old video titled “This Youtuber Scams His Fans … Bitboy Crypto” caused him significant distress and damage to his business and reputation, in addition to inflicting emotional distress, the community isn’t buying it.
Even as BitBoy Crypto has his troupe of ardent followers, Armstrong couldn’t escape accusations of unethical and irresponsible behavior even before Atozy released the video. He finally dropped the defamation suit seeking $75,000 in restitution, but the entire fiasco appears to have blown up on his face.
“Not About a Slapstick Lawsuit”
In a prologue to his routine live stream, Armstrong said that he didn’t assume the lawsuit will be made public. Interestingly, all federal lawsuits are accessible as a public record. While confirming that he would drop the lawsuit, Amstrong added,
“This was not about a slapstick lawsuit. When someone implies you can be in trouble with the SEC, that is not frivolous, that’s a very, very big, serious, serious matter. I do believe I’m probably the most misunderstood person in crypto.”
BitBoy’s initial idea may have been to suppress Atozy’s original video, but the consequence has been exactly the opposite. Even before the blow-up of the lawsuit, prominent crypto sleuth ZachXBT observed that a major chunk of BitBoy-promoted projects had lost significant value way before the market downturn.
David Schwartz Chimes In
Many believe that slapping Atozy with a defamation lawsuit was an extremely ill-advised move in the first place. Even Ripple’s David Schwartz hoped in and asked Armstrong to identify one specific announcement from Atozy’s video that he could prove is a lie. While the latter argued that he could not make particular statements until the case is over, Schwartz lashed out at him, saying,
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“That’s probably best since this kind of bullshit is utterly indefensible. Seriously, how could any competent lawyer put these obvious statements of opinion (and pretty much only these!) in a defamation complaint? Oh, one last thing just in case anyone doesn’t see through your nonsense: If you really wanted to protect your reputation and could prove his statements are false, wouldn’t you just present that proof now to protect your reputation?! Is hurting him more important?”
Atozy, on the other hand, had previously put out a call for donations to fund his legal defense against Armstrong. The UpOnly podcaster and a prominent crypto trader, Cobie, donated $100,000. He even raised over $53k from GoFundMe, around $1,800 in BTC, $21,000 in ETH, over $10,000 in USDT, and more. All in all, the total donations have far exceeded the amount Armstrong had initially sought for damages.
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