The dispute between the YouTuber Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen and Logan Paul is escalating further. Coffeezilla accused Paul of crypto fraud and he has now responded with a video addressing the allegations. MeinMMO reports on the next round in the exchange of blows.
What’s going on?
- Coffeezilla released a total of 3 videos from December 17, 2022, to December 23, 2022, in which he accuses Logan Paul of defrauding his viewers and supporters with the Play2Earn game “CryptoZoo”.
- The game relies on blockchain technology and NFTs – one buys into the cryptocurrency “ZOO”, obtains eggs, hatches them, and can breed hybrids from them. The images one then receives are also NFTs and can be resold.
- Logan Paul is a partner in the game, and Coffeezilla accuses Paul of costing his fans a lot of money and defrauding them. Now Logan Paul has responded to the allegations in a video.
If you want to know more about blockchain technology and NFTs, check it out here:
Logan Paul attacks Coffeezilla and his sources
How does Paul respond to the allegations? The initial reactions to the massive backlash after the fraud allegations were rather subdued, a kind of damage control.
With the new video, Paul shifts to attack mode. You can find the English video here:
Paul begins his video with accusations against Coffeezilla. He claims that he has developed a “dependency for clicks” and uses his well-known name to generate more clicks. Paul sees a transformation of Coffeezilla’s channel: “From investigator to gossip channel”.
Even after that, it’s not about the game itself for now, but about the sources that Coffeezilla interviewed for his videos.
It concerns the developer Zach Kelling, who stated to Coffeezilla that developers of the project were not paid. Eddie Ibanez is also mentioned, who according to Paul was responsible for hiring processes. “Emilio” is also a topic – Coffeezilla spoke with him about the game CryptoZoo.
Paul says: Kelling, Ibanez, and Emilio are not trustworthy. Kelling and Emilio are convicted criminals, Ibanez has turned out to be a fraudster who has already pulled the table from under the Mormons and several billionaires.
He admits that he made mistakes by working with such people. Due to the past, they are not trustworthy.
Coffeezilla did not fully disclose the sources in his videos and pointed out that some interview partners want to remain anonymous. However, Paul accuses him of this: “Either you forgot or you knew about it and left the public in the dark”.
NFTs have a bad reputation, especially in gaming. However, the technology behind it is not solely aimed at profits:
Paul says: CryptoZoo was also defrauded
Logan Paul then also clarifies: CryptoZoo is still under development, the invested money is accordingly not lost. However, problems with business partners have indeed put the project in jeopardy.
Paul speaks of 6.7 million dollars that were stolen from CryptoZoo. He himself has never taken a payout.
In addition, there were apparently problems with Kelling’s development team, which was supposed to consist of 30 people – but there were only 3.
When Paul learned of the internal problems, he supposedly completely stopped promoting the game. Logan Paul sees himself as innocent and a victim of fraud.
He accuses Coffeezilla of knowing all these things – also that Paul is innocent – and yet Coffeezilla published the 3 videos with the fraud allegations.
Paul sums up: “Deeply unethical, dangerously misleading, and illegal. I recommend you hire a lawyer with your Patreon money, you will need him”.
At the end of the video, Paul becomes somewhat aggressive and clarifies that all the stress would not have been necessary if Coffeezilla had only contacted him correctly. He offers him to come on his podcast to clarify the matter afterwards.
Currently, it looks like Logan Paul has initiated the next round. However, it might take place in court. Coffeezilla said on Twitter about the video that he wants to respond but first sort his thoughts (via twitter.com).
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