Who is Ben Armstrong?
"Talented content creator" and "YouTube's most hated crypto influencer," BitBoy Crypto, whose real name is Ben Armstrong (Benjamin Charles Armstrong), is indeed a controversial figure. Despite partying ways with HIT Network, the company behind the BitBoy Crypto brand, his provocative behavior and arrest, which have become the focal point of recent crypto news, as well as numerous allegations of luring followers into rug pulls, the famous blockchain technology and crypto enthusiast continues to draw significant attention in the crypto world.
Since the establishment of his online platform BitBoy Crypto (now Discover Crypto) in 2018 and joining the community of successful crypto YouTubers, there has been a persistent curiosity among both Armstrong's followers and detractors regarding the wealth amassed by the celebrity. Let’s delve deeper into Ben Armstrong's net worth and explore his tumultuous career in the crypto space.
Read also: Ben Armstrong No Longer a Part of Bitboy Crypto; BEN’s Price Plummets
BitBoy Crypto Ben Armstrong age, biography and family
According to information from social media, Armstrong, currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia, was born on October 27, 1982, which made him 42 years old at the time of publication (2024).
Based on data available on Armstrong's LinkedIn profile, he attended Toccoa Falls College and earned a bachelor's degree in Ministry Leadership in 2012. It is highly likely that he also attended Kennesaw State University.
Ben Armstrong is a father of three children with Bethany Armstrong, who may soon become his ex-wife. On October 24, the crypto influencer announced in an X post the news about Bethany filing divorce papers. Armstrong stated, "To get it out of the way so there are no questions, yes, I am with DuchessOfDeFi [Cassandra Wolfe]," Armstrong wrote, adding that "Bethany is incredible and she helped me build my business and supported me. She is a great mother and we will be good co-parents together and I hope we are able to stay close friends. "
Given the extensive public attention that Ben brought to his private life, it may be reasonable to assume that Wolfe, Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships at BitBoy Crypto, has played a significant role in the couple's decision to divorce.
The career of Ben Armstrong and his triumph in the crypto space
Due to the publicly available information about BitBoy Crypto, it is known that he has been the owner of "Front Page Tickets" and a web and graphic design company called "Ben Armstrong Designs." Notably, one of Armstrong’s previous occupations was with the company Three Dimensional Life, where BitBoy Crypto served as an executive director from 2015 to 2018.
Even before taking on his role as a content creator for the YouTube channel BitBoy Crypto, Armstrong had positioned himself as one of the early adopters of cryptocurrencies. Despite initial unsuccessful moves on the crypto market including his early crypto investments in Bitcoin, Armstrong decided to pursue his Web3 education. This journey initially led him to the podcast "Beards and Bitcoins" and eventually culminated in the establishment of his BitBoy Crypto YouTube channel, now known as Discover Crypto.
The early videos on BitBoy Crypto's channel targeted individuals who wanted to become retail crypto investors but were just at the beginning of their exploration of the cryptocurrency industry. These videos provided content that simplified complex concepts and explained the basics, aiming to help novices make better investing decisions.
In five years, Armstrong’s channel managed to attract 1.42 million YouTube subscribers and garnered 174 million views. One of his most popular videos, "Top 3 Coins To $3 Million (NFT Picks To Become Millionaire)," amassed almost 900,000 views.
During the peak of his career in 2018, Armstrong also founded HIT Network and High Throughput Productions.
Presumably, Armstrong was particularly interested in content creation and to get more spare time to focus on his favorite task, the vlogger trusted the executive role to his business partner Tj Shedd, who has subsequently become the CEO of HIT Network.
BitBoy Crypto without Ben Armstrong
Unfortunately, as was announced in the latest crypto news, despite the rapid growth of the BitBoy Crypto brand, in August, HIT Network disclosed its decision to sever ties with Armstrong, marking the end of an era for BitBoy Crypto.
This news came as a shock to both Armstrong’s fans and critics, who knew little about the real legal position of the channel’s public face in the company. Regardless of their opinions about BitBoy Crypto, the majority of crypto community members agreed that the channel is unlikely to survive without Armstrong, who was the embodiment of BitBoy Crypto itself.
This fact raised suspicions about some underlying serious reasons that led the HIT Network team to make such a drastic decision, which could severely compromise the success of the business.
Meanwhile, the official reason given by HIT Network was the team’s concerns over Ben’s substance abuse and allegations of financial harm inflicted on individuals within the industry. Additionally, rumor has it that Armstrong paid Wolfe $50,000 monthly out of the company’s funds, further contributing to the conflict between him and the BitBoy team.
HIT Network also cited the damage inflicted by Armstrong on other individuals and the disparaging remarks he made about high-profile figures on the BitBoy Crypto platform.
Unsurprisingly, the unexpected turn of events led to more elaborate theories about the real reason behind the termination of the business relationship between HIT Network and the public face of the BitBoy Crypto brand. According to one theory, former business partners and co-workers of Armstrong attempted to protect the company from the increasing allegations of promoting rug pulls and other scam Web3 projects, as further discussed in the article.
Nearly two months after the separation from Armstrong, HIT Network announced the official end of the BitBoy Crypto brand and its relaunch as Discover Crypto.
According to the official press release, "The channel will be led by a fresh roster of talent alongside some familiar faces, and focus on key areas impacting the Bitcoin, crypto and blockchain ecosystem." The HIT Network team is now using the channel "to cover everything from macro market analysis to institutional adoption, regulation, and industry trends, building legitimacy and trust among its global audience of more than 2 million."
Discover Crypto now maintains a consistent schedule with live broadcasts twice daily at 10:30 am and 4:00 pm Eastern Time to provide viewers with regular access to up-to-date insights in the cryptocurrency space. The platform also produces daily documentary and vlog-style content that focuses on in-depth analysis and breaking news in the Web3 world. Additionally, Discover Crypto plans to invite industry-leading guests to contribute to the creation of high-quality content.
Read also: BitBoy Crypto "completely separates from Ben.eth"
At press time, Discover Crypto is still in its initial stage of gathering an audience on social media. For instance, on X, the channel had less than 900 followers, whereas the BitBoy Crypto account, with its last post made on August 31, still had 1 million followers. However, on YouTube, where it is highly likely that Discover Crypto uses the old BitBoy Crypto channel, the current number of followers is over 1.4 million.
Needless to say, Armstrong’s fans met the news of the channel rebranding rather negatively and felt discouraged from watching the crypto related content provided by Discover Crypto.
In the meantime, Ben Armstrong created a new channel on September 6, where he has already gained an audience of over 67,000 subscribers. Interestingly, so far, new videos by Armstrong seem to be gaining even more views than the content created by Discover Crypto despite the relatively small audience of the new channel. Some of his videos, for instance, "XRP Mooning! (What Crypto Investors Need to Know)" have been watched nearly 38,000 times within two weeks.
It also appears that Armstrong is now working on his content together with Wolfe, who helps Ben to promote his BEN coin.
BitBoy Crypto net worth
The exact Ben Armstrong's net worth is unknown, partially because his cryptocurrency wallets are mostly not public.
Two years ago, Ben Armstrong estimated net worth was between $5 and $6 million, generated by his social media, YouTube channel, brand ads, business, and cryptocurrency. However, the most recent reports suggest that his estimated net worth has reached up to $30 million.
According to the X Media Kit Price List, BitBoy Crypto’s sponsored services start from $2,500 per website article and go up to $35,000 per dedicated review. The YouTuber is also willing to mention a project during a live stream for $20,000, and a YouTube interview with the crypto influencer is priced at $40,000.
Despite numerous reports of Armstrong’s multimillion-dollar wealth, the crypto community became rather confused about the real financial condition of BitBoy Crypto when the vlogger asked his followers for donations, complaining about financial issues after his separation from HIT Network. Additionally, Ben initiated a confrontation with his former business partner Carlos Diaz, whom he accused of expropriating BitBoy’s Lamborghini, and accused Tj Shedd of "stealing everything," implying that Armstrong may have lost a substantial amount of money during the recent events.
Controversy surrounding Ben Armstrong in the crypto community
While Ben Armstrong still maintains a community of followers who perceive the sudden turn in the career of Crypto BitBoy as unfair, the creator of the successful YouTube channel had already been involved in significant controversy even before his separation from the channel.
In addition to the public allegations from Tj Shedd, other influencers in the crypto space, as well as investors, traders, and cryptocurrency users, have raised concerns about the YouTube channel BitBoy Crypto who blame it for a long history of promoting fraudulent initial coin offerings and other dubious projects that subsequently proved to be rug pulls. The crypto community particularly emphasizes the lack of promotion disclosure in many of Ben’s videos which are rather misguiding for his followers.
As per the prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, at least seven of the crypto projects promoted by BitBoy Crypto turned out to be exit scams. MYX, DISTX, Zao Finance, ETHY, LOCK (Meridian Network), CPH, and PAMP are some of these rug pulls.
Whether BitBoy Crypto used any promotion disclosure in the videos on his YouTube channel and Twitter posts or not, labeling a token as "My most trusted coin" could itself confuse the vlogger’s audience.
In addition, Armstrong was sued for $1 billion by investors in the FTX lawsuit. Before Ben was eventually dismissed from the lawsuit, he had engaged in a public conflict with lawyers representing investors in court. Amid the ongoing legal process, Crypto BitBoy threatened lawyers on X, notably Adam Moskowitz.
A similar fate befell some crypto influencers who investigated the controversial promotions made by Armstrong. One of them was the prominent YouTube content creator Erling Mengshoel Jr, aka Atozy, who spoke in 2020 about a now-deleted BitBoy’s video advertising the PAMP network token. This time, Armstrong decided to file a federal complaint against Atozy, accusing him of defamation, among numerous other claims, including tortious interference with potential and existing business relations and emotional distress.
Yet, unexpectedly for Armstrong, who estimated the overall financial damage at around $75,000, Atozy sought financial support in the crypto community and quickly raised $200,000.
This event prompted Armstrong to reconsider and ultimately withdraw the lawsuit. In explaining his decision, he apologized for the incident, stating that it was not intended "to become public and misconstrued." Ben clarified that the lawsuit was not meant to be a slapstick affair, likely alluding to lawsuits filed solely to stifle criticism, commonly known as SLAPP lawsuits. He emphasized, "When someone implies you can be in trouble from the SEC, that is not frivolous, that's a very, very big, serious, serious matter."
Numerous crypto investors have conducted their own research, such as Reddit user Kawalele.
"[Armstrong] has several videos titled something similar to: 'BEST Low Cap Crypto Gem of 2021,' and guess what! He doesn't hold two out of ten coins that he pumps in those videos. But he does hold 300k USD," Kawalele claimed. The investor also found that one of such "Best Low Cap Crypto Gems," the SOUL token, as well as Frontier, the coin with supposedly "the best potential" were not in Armstrong’s portfolio.
Interestingly, in a recent interview on another popular YouTube channel, Altcoin Daily, Tj Shedd recounted his first confrontation with the cryptocurrency influencer, which took place three years ago. According to Tj Shedd, the two former business partners had already argued over the dubious blockchain project that Armstrong was planning to cover in one of his coin reviews. This revelation from Tj Shedd supports the above-mentioned theory about shilling scam tokens being the major factor leading to Ben’s separation from his company.
Despite facing numerous allegations, Ben's channel continued to attract many followers, propelling Armstrong into the ranks of the top five crypto influencers. While some crypto investors experienced losses after following Ben's content, others continued to praise his crypto-related material. They emphasized that those who made poor investment decisions should admit their responsibility and not solely blame BitBoy's promotional content on social media platforms.
BitBoy Crypto and plagiarism
However, there were other concerns regarding BitBoy. Despite accumulating wealth valued in millions of dollars, Ben was also accused of plagiarism in his YouTube content, ranging from stolen artworks to incorporating articles written by other crypto influencers, including Vince Ferraiuolo and SmartContracter.
According to reports from the crypto community, not only did crypto celebrities fall victim to BitBoy's plagiarism, but freelancers working on tasks for the channel also faced issues. For instance, X user Kaleo shared their friend's experience of working for BitBoy Crypto, who "made a video for one of their NFT projects and when it came time to pay him they were like 'nah think we’ll do it in house' and recreated basically the exact same thing he made for them."
Ben Armstrong net worth and place in the crypto industry now
The journey of BitBoy Crypto (Ben Armstrong) has been marked by controversy, legal battles, and significant shifts in the crypto influencer's career. From the establishment of the platform in 2018 to the recent rebranding as Discover Crypto, Armstrong has faced both praise and criticism. Accusations of promoting fraudulent projects and plagiarism, the FTX lawsuit and the case against Atozy, the abrupt separation from HIT Network, allegations of substance abuse, financial disputes, and the death of the BitBoy Crypto brand have reshaped the landscape of Armstrong's crypto presence.
Despite these challenges and the dynamics of his personal life, including a divorce announcement, Armstrong has embarked on a new venture, continuing to create content and engage with his audience through a fresh channel.
Meanwhile, Armstrong's financial standing remains a subject of speculation. While estimates of his net worth vary, recent reports suggest a significant increase, reaching up to $30 million. However, the request for donations and claims of financial difficulties after the separation from HIT Network have raised questions about Armstrong’s current financial condition.
If you would like to learn more about the net worth of other crypto personalities, take a look at our articles on Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum, Balaji Srinivasan, Sergey Nazarov of Chainlink, Jesse Powell of Kraken, and Charles Hoskinson of Cardano.
