Logan Paul sues Coffeezilla for defamation over CryptoZoo coverage

Internet personality Logan Paul filed a defamation lawsuit against YouTuber Stephen Findeisen — better known as Coffeezilla — over a series of videos on Paul’s failed NFT game, CryptoZoo.

The charges were filed at a San Antonio district court on June 27, with Paul alleging that Findeisen “maliciously and repeatedly” published false statements accusing Paul of operating a scam in connection with CryptoZoo.

The court documents allege that Findeisen “has perpetuated this false narrative, despite knowing it to be completely and utterly false, in order to enhance his own profile and increase his viewership and income in the process.”

The three-part video series in question was published in late 2022. In it, Coffeezilla accused Paul of participating in a scam by promoting CryptoZoo and collecting money from NFT holders but not paying developers to actually create it, leaving investors and participants without a functioning product.

The videos quickly went viral, gaining tens of millions of views, and remain among Coffeezilla’s most popular videos.

In the wake of these videos’ publication, Paul released a response video saying the game was still under development. This video has since been removed from YouTube.

The court filings allege that Coffeezilla omitted key information in his videos that demonstrated Paul never intended to scam anyone “but to the contrary had always intended to build a legitimate blockchain-based game.”

The documents blame adviser Jake Greenbaum and developer Eduardo Ibanez for the project’s failure, saying Ibanez “turned out to be a charlatan who … had incompetently overseen the process and failed to pay his team of developers.” 

Paul’s team is seeking $75,000 in damages plus legal fees, interest, and additional damages to be determined by the court.

“Paul brings this defamation suit to hold Findeisen accountable for his actions and to hold him liable for the immense harm that he has caused to Paul’s reputation through the intentional and reckless dissemination of defamatory falsehoods.” The documents added.

After CryptoZoo failed to materialize and following Coffezilla’s videos, Paul announced he would carry out a buyback of CryptoZoo NFTs to mitigate losses incurred by those who purchased them, paid out of pocket by Paul.

The Block contacted Findeisen for comment.