Crypto: Two well-known influencers will appear in court
It is equivalent to a boxing match between two heavyweights.
On the one hand, we have BitBoy, whose real name is Benjamin Armstrong. He is one of the biggest crypto influencers on Youtube with more than 1.44 million subscribers to his channel and more than 221 million views since his launch in February 2018.
On the other hand, Atozy, whose real name is Erling Mengshoel Jr, has 1.23 million subscribers to his channel, which has amassed more than 233 million views since its inception in March 2012.
In the middle is the judge, which in this case is the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Armstrong just filed a complaint against Mengshoel for “defamation, defamation per se, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, tortious interference with business or prospective business.”
BitBoy is seeking damages and legal fees.
“Dirtbag YouTuber”
In the 24-page complaint filed on August 12 and seen by TheStreet, BitBoy focused on a video posted on November 8, 2021 by Atozy.
“Atozy’s video makes repeated attacks on Armstrong’s honesty, credibility and trustworthiness,” BitBoy alleged. “Atozy’s video repeatedly calls Armstrong a ‘dirtbag’ saying he is a ‘shady dirtbag’ and a ‘dirtbag YouTuber’. Atozy’s video claims it will ‘expose him [Armstrong] like the douche bag he is,’ and states several times that Armstrong is one of a group of ‘dirtbag influencers.'”
The complaint is a litany of similar allegations. BitBoy, for example, accused Atozy of attacking his livelihood, which is “cryptocurrency advice.”
“To drive the point home, Atozy’s video asks ‘how is this man a reputable source for crypto investment advice?’ The Atozy video answers its own rhetorical question stating that Armstrong ‘can’t be trusted with financial advice because you don’t know if he’s trying to enrich you or himself.
In the video in question, Atozy actually uses an example of the Pamp network project and its native token PAMP. BitBoy praised the benefits of the project on his channel. PAMP, whose prices reached an all-time high of $2.70 on July 27, 2020, according to data firm CoinGecko, is currently trading around $0.00021084. Trading volumes are extremely low.
On November 7th, the day before the broadcast of the video of Atozy attacking BitBoy, PAMP’s prices were at $0.00080295, far from the record high of $2.70.
“I think what happened is him [BitBoy] was paid to make this video because whoever is paying him to make this video clearly needed some exit cash,” Atozy concluded.
Scroll to Continue
Scammers versus ‘inexperienced’ investors
Atozy then elaborated:
“Essentially, if you have scam tokens, you need a sucker to buy it from you. What these people usually do is hire dirtbag influencers to show it to their fans, so the scammers can find suckers through them who then buys the scam token away from the scammer. That’s why you can see the volume go crazy around the time he released this video. Essentially, Big Boy and other dirt influencers brought scammers to the inexperienced investor who, in this case, is unfortunately hungry.”
The video has already been viewed almost 166,000 times at the time of writing and commented on over 1,400 times.
“Mengshoel via his Atozy video is publishing to the public false allegations that Armstrong is engaging in fraud, deceit and theft that will result in civil and/or criminal charges against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission – the government agency that oversees investments,” BitBoy claims in its lawsuit.
“Could there be a more damaging allegation for someone like BitBoy Crypto who engages in the business of providing cryptocurrency investment advice and commentary?” the suit adds.
The problem with this last statement is that BitBoy presents himself differently on his channel.
“Please note that I am not a professional advisor in business areas involving finance, cryptocurrency, taxation, securities and commodity trading, or legal practice. The information and content written, broadcast and/or disseminated by and through ‘BitBoy Crypto’ are intended ONLY FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSE Nothing written or discussed is intended to be construed, or relied upon, as investment, financial, legal, regulatory, accounting, tax or similar advice, nor should it be,” the influencer wrote on his channel .
BitBoy has some regrets
“As a result of the wrongful conduct of Atozy, Armstrong and BitBoy Crypto suffered damage to their reputations. This damage caused a reduction in Armstrong’s business and a reduction in the generation of new business,” the influencer claims.
Atozy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a recent investigation, CNBC reported that BitBoy could easily earn over $100,000 per month for paid cryptocurrency promotions. The influencer told the news outlet that he earned $30,000 for a promotional video for DistX, a cryptocurrency that ended up as a rug pull scam. He said he stopped accepting payments to promote products last January
“I hate it when we talk about things that didn’t do well,” he told CNBC, adding that he feels responsible for the losses his followers are suffering.
But Armstrong also advertised other crypto scam projects such as Ethereum Yield, Cypherium and MYX Network whose videos were taken down after they collapsed.
