Logan Paul sued YouTuber Coffeezilla for defamation over videos about his failed CryptoZoo NFT project.
On Thursday, influencer Logan Paul filed a defamation lawsuit against Stephen Findeisen, who is known as “Coffeezilla” on YouTube, for the videos he produced about Paul’s doomed CryptoZoo non-fungible token (NFT) project in 2022.
According to the lawsuit filed on June 27 in the San Antonio, Texas District Court, Findeisen “maliciously and repeatedly [published] false statements accusing Paul of operating a scam in connection with a troubled blockchain project called CryptoZoo.”
But Paul claims Coffeezilla purposefully omitted information in his videos that proved Paul was “deeply committed” to CryptoZoo’s success but was “deceived by several of the project’s trusted advisers who turned out to be conmen.” The filing adds:
“Findeisen knew full well that Paul had never set out to scam anybody, but to the contrary had always intended to build a legitimate blockchain-based game.”
Coffeezilla began releasing three YouTube videos on CryptoZoo in late 2022, referring to it as “Logan Paul’s biggest scam.” He accused the influencer of defrauding his followers by withholding the money of NFT holders without delivering the remainder of the promised project.
However, Paul contends that Coffeezilla intentionally withheld information from his videos that would have demonstrated his “unwavering dedication” to the success of CryptoZoo. He claims that Coffeezilla was “misled by several of the project’s trusted advisers who ultimately proved to be fraudulent.”
Paul instead attributes the project’s failure to Eduardo “Eddie” Ibanez, whom he characterizes as a “charlatan” who fabricated his credentials, and Jake Greenbaum, an adviser who was “more concerned with generating personal wealth than assisting in the development of a legitimate project.”
Ibanez and Greenbaum were reached out to for comment by Cointelegraph. Findeisen was unavailable for comment at the time.
Paul stated that he entertained the possibility of pursuing legal action against Findeisen in late 2022; however, he ultimately decided to refrain from doing so in order to concentrate on “attempting to rectify the situation” by implementing a $1.5 million recovery plan for CryptoZoo.
The suit stated that he was subsequently “left disappointed” when his efforts “failed to materialize” and spent $1 million to purchase back the NFTs between January and March, despite having not “earned any money from the project whatsoever.”
Paul is seeking damages in excess of $75,000, as well as interest and counsel fees, as well as any additional damages and relief that the court deems necessary.
Initially, CryptoZoo was intended to be a game in which participants purchased NFT “eggs” using the game’s token, ZOO, when it was released in 2021. The eggs would “hatch” into animals that can be bred to create hybrid animals that can be traded and gain players more ZOO tokens, depending on their rarity.
According to CoinMarketCap, the ZOO token has experienced a 100% decline in value over the past day, with a market capitalization of $0.00 and a volume of one cent.
