Today, popular crypto blogger Ben Armstrong aka BitBoy Crypto made an unexpected announcement on Twitter. Armstrong, who has recently been actively involved in the promotion of memecoin tokens issued by mysterious Twitter influencer Ben.eth, wrote on the social network, "I have completely separated from Ben.eth. We will no longer working together in any capacity. Good luck to him on all accounts, but going forward, BEN will have no association to any project related to him." BitBoy Crypto also emphasized that Ben.eth "no longer holds any BEN tokens."
Ben.eth commented on Armstrong’s post with a short "Yes."
Read also: BEN token gets support from Bitboy in battle of memecoins
The beginning of the collaboration between the two Bens looked very promising, which makes the conflict quite unexpected. A little over a week ago, Armstrong tweeted, "I know something you guys don’t know. I know that this third project from Ben.eth is going to be a moment in crypto history where decentralization returns to the space. I’m officially joining the LOYAL team," claiming that the token will be a real revolution. At the time, BitBoy Crypto also emphasized that LOYAL will be of great help for the BEN project.
Some Twitter users even made ironic polls about this situation, asking, "Which Ben are you moving in with after the divorce?" The Non Funglible Degen's survey shows that Ben.eth may have greater popularity.
Many members of the crypto community assume that BitBoy Crypto and Ben.eth worked together to develop a financial scheme involving BEN and LOYAL tokens but eventually faced problems.
Twitter user Lil Anx expressed a widely held opinion, "Ben [Ben.eth] was supposed to hand over all of his BEN coins, but he didn't, so BitBoy kept the LOYAL. Then Ben finally sent the coins he had so BitBoy released the LOYAL. Sounds like Ben should have sent the coins in the first place."
Still, the reason for the dispute may be the escalating problems and growing controversy surrounding the memecoin projects, which are widely viewed as a rug pull scam. On May 19, Ben.eth received a threatening letter from Mike Kanovitz, a founding partner of civil rights law firm Loevy & Loevy, who demands the return of funds lost by investors involved in the PSYOP project. While threatening the memecoin issuer with a lawsuit, Kanovitz also promised to reveal the identities of Ben.eth’s "co-conspirators."
Read also: LOYAL investors disappointed by Ben.eth's new token airdrop
In addition, on weekend, Ben.eth was also blackmailed by a developer of smart contracts for the LOYAL airdrop, who wants the memecoin maker to pay 100 ETH, while a group of Ben.eth haters created an entire FuckBenNFT project.
Interestingly, some Twitter users now believe that Armstrong himself is Ben.eth, while the identity of the memecoin maker is still unknown.
Meanwhile, blockchain security firm Beosin released its report with Web3 security insights for May 2023. The company found a disturbing trend of a dramatic increase in the number of pump and dump frauds. It turned out that last month, the amount of rug pulls overcame the number of all other types of attacks. "The total amount involved in a rug pull reached $45.02 million, surpassing losses from attacks," Beosin experts said.
