American YouTuber and boxer Logan Paul is facing backlash again after being accused of misleading his fans over crypto investments. New evidence shows that Paul seemingly promoted tokens without acknowledging he had a financial interest in them, gaining over $100,000 in the process.
YouTuber Profits From Misleading Fans
The BBC reported on Wednesday that social media personality Logan Paul allegedly misled his fans in 2021 when promoting crypto projects online. The investigation unveiled apparent connections between Paul and a wallet profiting from the tokens he shared online.
According to the report, Paul endorsed an Elon Musk-themed memecoin, Elongate, in May 2021 on his subscription-only fan club, Maverick Club. In the video, the YouTuber declared, “Elongate made me rich. Elongate, baby, let’s go. Elongate token.”
After the namedrop, the memecoin’s price soared by 6,000% but quickly crashed when investors started to sell for profit a few hours later. The report notes that, even if his intentions can’t be proven, Paul’s mention appears to have affected Elongate’s price action.
The BBC analyzed an anonymous crypto wallet for its apparent connection to the internet star. The investigation found that the wallet received funds from Paul’s public wallet in February 2021 to start trading cryptocurrencies.
The wallet allegedly “was later paid funds from Maverick Club and held Elongate when Paul promoted it on 10 May 2021.” Moreover, it also traded another Musk-themed token after the YouTuber posted on X that it was going “to the moon”
Shortly before Paul’s post, the wallet acquired around $160,000 worth of the memecoin and sold most of its holdings 12 hours later, when the cryptocurrency’s price saw a spike in price. The wallet seems to have made around $120,000 in profit from this trade.
Logan Paul’s Long History Of Crypto Controversies
These aren’t Paul’s first crypto-related accusations. For the past few years, he has been involved in a lawsuit over his failed CryptoZoo Project, which saw investors lose around $4 million. In 2023, Time Magazine made similar findings to BBC’s about another memecoin, Dink Doink, and a different anonymous wallet.
This investigation found a “cozy relationship” between the unknown wallet and Paul’s public address. The wallet “was getting fed a lot of the funds that went into that address,” as the anonymous wallet reportedly sent $100,000 to Paul’s address after selling its Din Doink tokens.
The YouTuber’s lawyer told the BBC that the transfer was unrelated to the memecoin sale. However, He didn’t deny Paul’s connections to the anonymous wallet and admitted that he traded the token, allegedly making only $17,000 in profit.
Despite addressing the Dink Doink accusations, Paul seemingly refused to comment on the BBC’s main investigation for several months. According to the report, the social media personality later agreed to talk to the British media outlet’s team, inviting them to his gym in Puerto Rico.
Nonetheless, the BBC’s team was met with a Logan Paul lookalike instead and verbally attacked by a group of his associates. Then, his lawyer sent a letter on behalf of the YouTuber, warning them “of the possible consequences if we published our findings.”
Paul has also faced recent online controversy for Lunchy, his collaboration project with YouTubers KSI and Mr. Beast, who has been recently accused of crypto-related scams.
