🪙 Logan Paul sued Coffeezilla for defamation over CryptoZoo

Logan Paul's defamation lawsuit against Stephen Findeisen, the YouTube investigator known as Coffeezilla, is on the record. Court papers filed in the Western District of Texas on June 27, 2024 name Findeisen and his company, Coffee Break Productions, over Findeisen's three-part series on Paul's failed CryptoZoo project, TMZ reported. It is the same project Paul had apologized for eighteen months earlier.

The game that started it

CryptoZoo launched in 2021 as a blockchain game co-founded by Paul, marketed as an "autonomous ecosystem" where players bought, bred and burned cartoon-animal NFTs for a cryptocurrency called $ZOO, the BBC reported. No playable game was ever published, and buyers who hatched their eggs got stock images of animals rather than the promised creatures, PC Gamer reported.

"a really fun game that makes you money"

Logan Paul, promoting CryptoZoo in 2021, as the BBC reported

In December 2022, Findeisen published a three-part series alleging the game never delivered despite millions raised from investors, that it was marketed toward children, and that the team bought up the cryptocurrency before the public launch in a way that inflated its value, as the BBC and news.com.au reported. Paul posted a rebuttal video disputing the claims and threatening to sue Findeisen, then deleted it and dropped the threat in January 2023.

The $1.3 million refund, with a string attached

That same January, Paul apologized on Twitter and promised a "$1.3M rewards program" for disappointed CryptoZoo players, TechCrunch reported, publishing his post. Investors filed a class-action lawsuit against him over CryptoZoo in January 2023 anyway, per Fortune.

The buyback itself did not begin until January 2024, when Paul committed $2.3 million to repurchase CryptoZoo NFTs at 0.1 ETH each, on the condition that claimants waive any claims against him, the BBC reported. He also filed a cross-claim against the class action's other two defendants, Eduardo Ibanez and Jake Greenbaum, per TechCrunch. A refund with a non-litigation clause attached is one way to read "rewards program."

Then he sued the critic

On June 27, 2024, Paul sued Findeisen and Coffee Break Productions for defamation, claiming Findeisen spread false information about his connection to CryptoZoo, TMZ reported. In August 2024, Findeisen answered in a video calling the suit a strategic move to block scrutiny of Liquid Marketplace, a company he says Paul co-owns and that Canadian authorities have accused of "multi-layered fraud," per Game Rant.

"multi-layered fraud"

Canadian authorities' allegation against Liquid Marketplace, cited by Findeisen in his August 2024 response video, per Game Rant

Where it lands

Paul has denied wrongdoing throughout; his representatives told Rolling Stone that "all deserving parties will be reimbursed," and by the time he sued, Paul said he had already returned more than $1 million of his own money to hundreds of NFT buyers, per TMZ. Findeisen has stood by his reporting, per Game Rant.