{"id":71616,"date":"2026-04-25T15:56:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T15:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/believe-founder-arrested-on-strangulation-charges-as-token-collapses-99\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T15:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T15:56:32","slug":"believe-founder-arrested-on-strangulation-charges-as-token-collapses-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/believe-founder-arrested-on-strangulation-charges-as-token-collapses-99\/","title":{"rendered":"Believe Founder Arrested on Strangulation Charges as Token Collapses 99%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Pasternak, 26, was charged with second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault over a March 31 incident; he has pleaded not guilty, with a court date set for June 11. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight:400\">A class action complaint alleges he \u201cran the same play three times\u201d across PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE, extracting $54M in fees from roughly $6B in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-trading-volume\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trading volume<\/a>. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Pasternak was reportedly staying at a $2,000-per-night hotel to avoid civil lawsuit service at the time of his arrest.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Three Tokens, One Alleged Playbook<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Pasternak founded Launchcoin, a Solana-based social token launchpad that allows users to launch tokens tied to online personalities and communities. The platform grew quickly, with Launchcoin\u2019s native token reaching a peak <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-a-market-cap\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">market cap<\/a> of $370 million before a forced migration reset the table for existing holders.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_809270\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-809270\" style=\"width:1582px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-809270\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image source: X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">In October 2025, Pasternak announced Launchcoin would be retired and replaced with a new token called BELIEVE. The migration was mandatory, with a two-week conversion window. The swap created 333 million new tokens distributed to insider-linked wallets, shrinking existing holders\u2019 stakes by roughly one third. Anyone who missed the October 29, 2025 deadline had their holdings permanently destroyed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The class action complaint alleges the migration was not an upgrade but a structured reset engineered to extract fresh fees from a new base of holders. The filing states Pasternak \u201cran the same play three times, under three different token names,\u201d pointing to PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE as successive iterations of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/cryptocurrency-founder-years-prison-millions-dollars-exit-scam-without-paying-taxes\/\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">same alleged scheme<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Across the full lifecycle of the platform, Believe processed roughly $6 billion in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-trading-volume\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trading volume<\/a> from which Pasternak allegedly extracted an estimated $54 million in fees. Consumer losses are estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The BELIEVE token now trades 99.8% below its all-time high of $0.35.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Arrest in New York as Legal Pressure Compounds<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The criminal charges stem from a March 31 incident in New York. Pasternak faces one count of second-degree strangulation and two counts of third-degree assault with intent to cause physical injury. The victim has been widely identified online as Evelyn Ha, a Tiktok influencer whom Pasternak had been publicly dating since mid-2024. He has pleaded not guilty and his next court appearance is scheduled for June 11.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <!-- --> <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WuBlockchain\/status\/2047886193057292647\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Wu Blockchain<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\">, Pasternak was staying at a hotel charging $2,000 per night at the time of the arrest, which prosecutors allege was in part an effort to avoid being served in the ongoing civil proceedings. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The arrest places Pasternak under simultaneous pressure across criminal and civil jurisdictions. No formal criminal charges tied specifically to the token allegations have been filed. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/believe-founder-ben-pasternak-arrested-strangulation-token-collapses\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways: Pasternak, 26, was charged with second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault over a March 31 incident; he has pleaded not guilty, with a court date set for June 11. A class action complaint alleges he \u201cran the same play three times\u201d across PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE, extracting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3947362404,"featured_media":71617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3947362404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}