KEY POINTS
Logan Paul has initiated a lawsuit against American YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, better known as Coffeezilla, for allegedly making false accusations about his involvement in the failed non-fungible token (NFT) project, CryptoZoo.
The lawsuit, filed on June 27, claims that Coffeezilla accused Paul of defrauding and scamming fans through the CryptoZoo project without providing concrete evidence and often manipulating information to cast doubt on Paul’s actions.
CryptoZoo, an animal-themed NFT project launched in 2021, promised NFTs that would become playable characters in a play-to-earn game. However, the game never materialized, raising concerns among NFT holders.
Amid the project’s troubles, Coffeezilla produced a series of three investigative reports on YouTube, asserting that CryptoZoo was a scam and that Paul had orchestrated a fraudulent scheme. The three-part series garnered tens of millions of views and remains among Findeisen’s most popular videos.
In response to CryptoZoo’s failures, Paul announced in January that he would commit $2.3 million to repurchase NFTs. He blamed development team members, including lead developers Eduardo Ibanez and Jake Greenbaum, for mismanagement, financial misconduct, and deliberate sabotage.
In March, Paul addressed the CryptoZoo controversy again in a documentary by journalist Graham Bensinger. Paul claimed that CryptoZoo wasn’t a scam but a project that became too overwhelming for him to manage. He admitted that people lost money but denied any malicious intent, asserting that he also suffered financial losses.
In the documentary, Paul criticized Coffeezilla for unfairly portraying him as the mastermind behind a scam. Despite Paul’s efforts to address the issues and his accusations against the development team, Coffeezilla continued to assert that Paul was responsible for the project’s failure.
This persistence led Paul to file the lawsuit, a move he had considered since Coffeezilla started his series but initially dismissed to focus on resolving the CryptoZoo fallout and finding solutions for the affected community.
