Ben Armstrong

‘Atozy you’ve won’ — Bitboy drops lawsuit after $200K defense raised

“So we are gonna drop the lawsuit, 100% and I’m sorry this became public,” said Ben Armstrong.

Ben Armstrong, the man behind Bitboy Crypto said that he is dropping the defamation suit against fellow Youtube content creator Erling Mengshoel Jr., who goes by the name Atozy.

Armstrong officially filed the suit against Mengshoel Jr. on Aug. 12 in response to a Nov 2021 video titled “This YouTuber scams his fans… Bitboy Crypto” which alleged that Armstrong was dishonestly promoting dubious assets to his audience such as PAMP for his own gain. He was seeking $75,000 in damages over the ordeal.

However, Armstrong suggested in a Aug. 24 live stream that he is now walking back the complaint after Mengshoel Jr. managed to raise more than $200,000 for his defence.

The crypto YouTuber outlined that he initially filed the complaint with the aim to get Mengshoel Jr. to take the video down, and suggested that he didn’t want to actually go through with the court proceedings.

However, Armstrong explained that as Atozy now has enough to cover legal costs, and with prominent crypto trader/podcasters such as Cobie (Jordan Fish) donating $100,000 to the cause, the dispute has gone further than he initially intended.

“So we are gonna drop the lawsuit, 100% and I’m sorry this became public, I’m sorry that this has been misconstrued, but I just want you guys to understand why I was doing this. This was not about a slapstick lawsuit.”

“When someone implies that you could be in trouble from the SEC, that is not frivolous guys, that’s a very serious matter. And so from my perspective, trying to defend my reputation, trying to get him to remove the video that literally has wrong information in it, that was all I wanted,” he added. 

At the time of writing, Atozy’s video is still up and has nearly 190,000 views. In the Bitboy livestream, Armstrong pleaded with Mengshoel Jr. to at least edit parts of the video which he has taken umbrage over. Ultimately however, Armstrong noted that Atozy has “won.”

Commenting on the matter, Atozy states that all is yet to be resolved, as he is still waiting for the official confirmation from his lawyer that the complaint has been dismissed with “prejudice.”

“I’m told by my lawyer that if it is not with prejudice he can refile at any time,” he wrote, adding that once the official confirmation has come through, he will refund all the money to everyone that donated to the cause.

‘Atozy you’ve won’ — Bitboy drops lawsuit after $200K defense raised

“So we are gonna drop the lawsuit, 100% and I’m sorry this became public,” said Ben Armstrong.

Ben Armstrong, the man behind Bitboy Crypto, said that he is dropping the defamation suit against fellow Youtube content creator Erling Mengshoel Jr., who goes by the name Atozy.

Armstrong officially filed the suit against Mengshoel on Aug. 12 in response to a Nov 2021 video titled “This YouTuber scams his fans… Bitboy Crypto,” which alleged that Armstrong was dishonestly promoting dubious assets to his audience such as PAMP for his own gain. He was seeking $75,000 in damages over the ordeal.

However, Armstrong suggested in a Wednesday livestream that he is now walking back the complaint after Mengshoel managed to raise more than $200,000 for his defense.

The crypto YouTuber outlined that he initially filed the complaint with the aim of getting Mengshoel to take the video down and suggested that he didn’t want to actually go through with the court proceedings.

However, Armstrong explained that Atozy now has enough to cover legal costs, and with prominent crypto trader/podcasters such as Cobie (Jordan Fish) donating $100,000 to the cause, the dispute has gone further than he initially intended

“So we are gonna drop the lawsuit, 100% and I’m sorry this became public, I’m sorry that this has been misconstrued, but I just want you guys to understand why I was doing this. This was not about a slapstick lawsuit.”

“When someone implies that you could be in trouble from the SEC, that is not frivolous guys, that’s a very serious matter. And so from my perspective, trying to defend my reputation, trying to get him to remove the video that literally has wrong information in it, that was all I wanted,” he added. 

At the time of writing, Atozy’s video is still up and has nearly 190,000 views. In the Bitboy livestream, Armstrong pleaded with Mengshoel to at least edit parts of the video which he has taken umbrage over. Ultimately, however, Armstrong noted that Atozy has “won.”

Commenting on the matter, Atozy states that all is yet to be resolved, as he is still waiting for the official confirmation from his lawyer that the complaint has been dismissed with “prejudice.”

“I’m told by my lawyer that if it is not with prejudice he can refile at any time,” he wrote, adding that once the official confirmation has come through, he will refund all the money to everyone that donated to the cause.

BitBoy Crypto sues fellow YouTuber Atozy for defamation over shilling claims

Cryptocurrency YouTuber Bitboy Crypto has filed a defamation lawsuit against another prominent content creator on the platform.

Two prominent YouTube content creators are set to lock horns in a legal battle over a cryptocurrency video allegedly promoting a project that ended up being a scam.

Bitboy Crypto, a YouTube channel founded by Ben Armstrong, produces a variety of content focused on cryptocurrency news, projects and tokens and trading advice. The channel has been active since February 2018 and has over 1.4 million subscribers.

The channel is known for its news pieces and trading-focused videos with headlines like Top 3 Coins To Outperform Ethereum! (Strong Short Term Play)typifying the type of content disseminated to viewers.

While these videos purport to offer trading advice, the channel has a disclaimer clearly stating that Armstrong is not “a professional advisor in business areas involving finance, cryptocurrency, taxation, securities and commodities trading, or the practice of law.” The channel’s content states that it is meant for general information purposes only.

Bitboy Crypto has copped criticism from the wider cryptocurrency community in the past for allegedly misleading viewers about various tokens and projects. Armstrong has attempted to rebut these claims, with a prime example being a fiery podcast conversation hosted by cryptocurrency investor Anthony Pompliano in November 2021.

Related: BitBoy founder threatens class action lawsuit against Celsius

An incident involving comments posted by another YouTuber on a BitBoy video from 2020 has led Armstrong to seek legal recourse. Erling Mengshoel Jr, better known by his YouTube channel name Atozy, came across a now-deleted video on the Bitboy channel promoting a project called Pamp network token in 2020.

The project ended on a sour note as investors were left empty-handed after a reported ‘rug-pull’ from the founders. As per data from CoinGecko, PAMP tokens are worth fractions of a dollar, down from all-time highs of $2.73 in July 2020. 

In the wake of the PAMP failure, Atozy revisited the Bitboy video to post comments labeling Armstrong as ‘shady’ for misleading viewers. Atozy went on to create a full video on his channel in November 2021 titled This YouTuber scams his fans… Bitboy Crypto, alleging that Armstrong had been dishonest as a self-proclaimed expert on cryptocurrencies to promote a project that ended up crashing.

Armstrong officially filed a federal complaint against Mengshoel on Aug. 12 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta, with a raft of claims, including defamation, infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference with business relations or potential business relations.

Mengshoel was eventually served at his home a few days later and has called for the assistance of viewers and the cryptocurrency community to tackle what he described as a “frivolous” lawsuit from Armstrong.

Mengshoel has since launched a GoFundMe account to meet the lawsuit head-on, with Armstrong claiming damages and legal fees worth $75,000. The initiative has received over $20,000 in the 24 hours since its launch, with over 450 contributors to date.

Meanwhile prominen pseudonymous Twitter cryptocurrency trader Cobie (Jordan Fish) has reportedly donated 100,000 USDC to Mengshoel’s legal defence. The British trader had originally pledged to assist Atozy on Twitter and confirmed that he’d transferred the funds in USDC .

In a subsequent Tweet, Cobie said that his involvement was mainly driven by his dislike for ‘frivolous lawsuits’ aimed at individuals that could not afford them

Cointelegraph has reached out to both parties for comment on proceedings and will update this article accordingly.

BitBoy founder threatens class action lawsuit against Celsius

BitBoy Crypto founder Ben Armstrong said that Celsius won’t let him withdraw money from the platform without sending more money to it first.

Just two weeks after appearing in an ask me anything (AMA) with Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky, crypto Youtuber Ben Armstrong has announced he intends to file a class-action lawsuit against the lending platform and its chief executive.

Armstrong made legal threats via Twitter on Wednesday and has since provided more detail in multiple threads. His issue is centered on being unable to pay down loans with existing funds on the platform, and instead, having to deposit new funds to pay the loans off:

“[Our account rep] told us we had enough money in our account to pay off a loan. But we can’t use money in our account. We HAVE TO SEND CELSIUS MORE MONEY TO PAY IT OFF.”

“Imagine an insolvent company that you can’t withdraw your money from ASKING YOU TO SEND THEM MORE MONEY,” he added.

Armstrong stated that he is currently working through the process of getting all “disclosures, documents, loan details, etc” put together while speaking to attorneys to explore the best ways to go about the class action. Co-plaintiffs have yet to be added as Armstrong hasn’t “officially began moving.” 

BitBoy Crypto is the second most subscribed crypto YouTube account with roughly 1.45 million subscribers and primarily provides commentary on market news/events. The channel is only behind Coin Bureau and its 2.07 million subscribers. BitBoy Crypto has plenty of detractors, too, some of whom allege that he has been paid to promote dubious crypto assets in the past.

Armstrong’s sentiments toward Celsius have swung wildly from just two weeks ago when he was featured on the ask me anything (AMA) session with Mashinsky on Celsius’ YouTube channel.

“And today I’m the victim. Kicking myself for wondering how I let this get so bad and so far,” he said.

Celsius is battling either insolvency or it’s experiencing severe liquidity troubles as a result of the crypto market plunge. The firm paused withdrawals on Monday, and also reportedly shifted around $320 million worth of assets to pay down loans and avoid liquidation on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms such as Aave.

One issue to a potential lawsuit, however, is if Celsius files for bankruptcy because it will trigger a provision called “automatic stay,” which would prevent creditors from pursuing collection activity against the firm.

Celsius has reportedly onboarded restructuring lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to find potential solutions for its financial troubles. However, Armstrong claims that these types of lawyers “specialize in MOSTLY preparing companies for bankruptcy.”

“Even if Celsius does file bankruptcy, we have discovered some potential workarounds to still do a class action lawsuit (not effected by bankruptcy). Unfortunately I have to keep that one close to the vest for now,” he said.

Related: DeFi contagion fears and rumors of Celsius and 3AC insolvency could weigh on NEXO price

In terms of recouping funds from Celsius, there does at least appear to be a potential option for users with less than $25,000 on the platform to obtain their assets in the immediate future. Joshua Browder, founder of robot lawyer DoNotPay, tweeted a step-by-step strategy on Wednesday on how users might be able to get funds back:

“As of right now, these exchanges have not yet filed for bankruptcy protection. Therefore, they are subject to small claims court judgements. Small claims court cases typically take 1-2 months. As long as this drags on longer than that, this strategy will work.”