YouTuber Logan Paul is no stranger to crypto — or controversy. In a video released on Tuesday, he vehemently denied most of the claims made by YouTuber Coffeezilla against his crypto game project, CryptoZoo, and said he intends to sue Coffeezilla, whose real name is Stephen Findeisen, for defamation.
Launched in 2021, CryptoZoo is an online game on the Binance Smart Chain where users buy “eggs” that hatch into hybrid animals. According to a company blog post, the animals could bring holders passive income in the form of the ZOO token.
Paul previously said in an August 2021 episode of his podcast that CryptoZoo is “a really fun money-making game.” But that vision was not exactly realized.
According to PancakeSwap data, the ZOO token is down about 89% over the past year. And Findeisen spoke to over six different people who claim to have each lost thousands from their CryptoZoo purchases. Overall, only six of the people say they lost nearly $600,000 combined.
The CryptoZoo blog has not published a new post since April 2022, and neither its Instagram nor Twitter pages have posted any new content since May 2022. Such lack of activity could be interpreted as abandonment.
However, the CryptoZoo Twitter account suddenly retweeted Paul’s Coffeezilla response video Tuesday – and Paul insists CryptoZoo isn’t dead yet.
“CryptoZoo is coming. I’ll make sure,” Paul said in his video.
Paul denied ever cheating his fanbase about CryptoZoo, calling Findeisen’s three-part series on the project “deeply unethical, dangerously misleading and illegal.”
“They led the prosecution to advance and monetize a narrative that tells millions of people that I am a con man or that I was trying to deceive my audience,” Paul said. “That’s obviously wrong.”
Paul claimed that Findeisen did indeed know that Paul was innocent but “distorted” facts and released the videos anyway. Paul argued that Findeisen “released a slanderous hit song knowing I was innocent.”
Attorney and associate law professor Andrew Rossow told Decrypt that since Paul is a public figure, he would have to prove “actual malice” or that Findeisen released the videos with a “reckless disregard for the truth” for a court to take Paul could case serious.
“I think the biggest unanswered question at press time, and the focus of a potential defamation lawsuit, is whether or not Paul’s ‘CryptoZoo’ was actually a ‘scam’ – one that Paul intentionally created for intentional purposes misleading and fraudulent investors,” Rossow said.
Regarding whether Findeisen could be held liable in court, Rossow said more information is needed on all the steps Findeisen took to get “the truth” from Paul.
Logan Paul replied. TL;DW
0 sorry
0 target victims
0 responsibility
I’ll respond in full as I organize my thoughts, but for now, Logan accuses me of not contacting him directly until December 24, 2022…but doesn’t mention I reached out on Instagram over a year ago. pic.twitter.com/5AfEfDXFwj— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) January 3, 2023
Though Paul plans to pursue legal action, he doesn’t disagree with everything about Coffeezilla’s series. Paul agreed with Findeisen’s assessment of former CryptoZoo employee Eddie Ibanez, claiming Ibanez was a “professional scammer”.
Paul said that Ibanez, previously listed on CryptoZoo’s website as their “scientist,” is currently “under investigation by a higher authority that I cannot speak to.”
Paul also criticized Findeisen’s interview with former CryptoZoo engineer Zach Kelling, who told Findeisen that he had a team of 30 engineers who worked on the project for $50,000 a week but were never paid. Paul said Kelling only has three engineers.
“Everything was stolen from me and our community,” Paul said of the CryptoZoo fiasco, claiming that he and his manager Jeffrey Levin just lost money at CryptoZoo.
Paul also alleges that Findeisen’s published phone interview with Levin was “illegal” and makes Findeisen “like a cybercriminal” since he was not given permission to publish the call.
Neither Paul nor Levin have responded to Decrypt’s requests for comment.
But Paul spent some time addressing the controversy in the latest episode of his Impaulsive podcast on Wednesday.
“The guy is good,” Paul said of the Coffeezilla CryptoZoo videos. “He’s a very good storyteller and he’s very, very manipulative.”
Separately, Paul intends to take legal action against Findeisen over the trio of Coffeezilla YouTube videos.
“I suggest you use the money you got from pumping your Patreon to hire a good lawyer — you’re going to need him,” Paul said in Tuesday’s response video. “See you in court.”
In a message to Decrypt, Findeisen said he has yet to receive any legal action from Paul’s team.
“The fact that Logan is suing me and not the criminals and scammers he hired says it all,” Findeisen told Decrypt via direct message. “He took no responsibility. Zero apologies. He just wants to save his own reputation rather than clean up the mess he and his team have made.”