In May 2023, the pseudonymous NFT collector and trader known as ben.eth (often styled Ben.ETH) launched the memecoin $BEN at the height of a PEPE-driven meme season. The token initially raised a relatively modest amount of ETH in its presale and traded weakly until prominent YouTube influencer Ben Armstrong (BitBoy Crypto) began promoting and then taking over the project, positioning $BEN as a “community” or “influencer” coin tied to his brand. Their collaboration quickly became central to the coin’s narrative: BitBoy’s endorsement triggered a rally and large inflows, but the handover of control and subsequent token movements drew scrutiny, including criticism that he sold tokens far earlier than public statements had implied. As controversy and accusations of poor stewardship mounted, Armstrong announced that he had cut ties with ben.eth and that $BEN would no longer be associated with any of ben.eth’s other projects, stating that the memecoin creator no longer held $BEN tokens. Meanwhile, ben.eth pivoted to new launches such as $PSYOP and later $LOYAL, using loosely structured presales in which users simply sent ETH to his address without clear tokenomics or caps, raising tens of millions of dollars and intensifying criticism that these offerings resembled exploitative or scam-like schemes rather than transparent community projects. The saga of ben.eth, BitBoy, and $BEN has since become a reference point in debates over influencer-driven memecoins, conflicts of interest, and the reputational risks such projects pose to the broader crypto ecosystem.

AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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