Who Is BitBoy Ben Armstrong? Fallen Crypto YouTube Star Vows to Rise Again
How Ben Armstrong became a huge crypto influencer | Credit: Shutterstock
Key Takeaways
- The rise of Ben Armstrong and BitBoy Crypto started in 2018 and rapidly expanded.
- Controversy followed the YouTube star before he was fired from Hit Network, the mother company of BitBoy Crypto.
- Armstrong’s removal from Hit Network has seen him drop the BitBoy moniker as he vows to rise again.
Ben Armstrong, or as many people knew him in the past, BitBoy Ben, was born in 1982. However, Armstrong gained his fame by becoming an internet (specifically YouTube) personality, mainly focused on crypto.
Armstrong started the BitBoy Crypto YouTube channel back in 2018, and quickly became a sensation among crypto enthusiasts.
What Started BitBoy Crypto?
The story goes that Ben first encountered Bitcoin in 2012. One of his first business ventures was an Event ticket business selling concerts on Craigslist. Armstrong used software to do it for him and ended up paying for that software with Bitcoin.
Later that year, Armstrong invested in Bitcoin for the first time. He put his investment forth through BitInstant, and unfortunately lost his investment to the Mt. Gox hack. According to Ben’s social media posts, he didn’t think of it much at the time as he thought Bitcoin was just a form of gambling.
But, in 2013, when Bitcoin skyrocketed past $1,000, having started the year at $13, Armstrong took notice and realized that if he had enough knowledge about the sector, he would’ve become a millionaire in a few years.
Fast forward to 2018, Ben Armstrong started BitBoy Crypto, a YouTube channel aiming to educate others about crypto and “help them become millionaires.”
The channel went on to achieve great success, giving him access to interview some of the most notable figures in crypto, including HEX founder Richard Heart, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, and TRON’s Justin Sun.
Scam Scandals
In 2022, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT went undercover to uncover BitBoy’s pricing scheme for paid endorsements on his channel.
According to ZachXBT’s findings, BitBoy promoted several of the ICOs and NFTs that ended up with zero bidders or had bids at less than 1% of what they were worth at the time of his promotion.
After that, another YouTuber by the name of Atozy released a video to reveal several scams BitBoy helped promote.
As a response, Armstrong/BitBoy filed a defamation lawsuit against Atozy, claiming he lost $75,000 due to Atozy’s allegations.
Atozy then responded by asking the crypto community on Twitter to crowdfund his legal fees, to which a crypto trader named Cobie responded by donating $100,000 in USDC.
BitBoy later dropped the lawsuit, perhaps reacting to the community’s support for Atozy.
ZachXBT went on to investigate alleged paid endorsements that made it onto BitBoy’s videos. According to ZachXBT, 2021. Most of the coins and tokens showed significant losses, with some having gone negative by more than 75% — one of them as much as 95.56%. He also claimed that “Videos that were suspected of promotions or private sale deals did the worst”.
Moreover, ZachXBT highlighted how bad BitBoy was at predicting Bitcoin price changes.
To make matters worse, BitBoy started receiving accusations of plagiarism. One Twitter user claimed that BitBoy/Armstrong plagiarized his article, word for word.
BitBoy Crypto got suspended from YouTube for 24 hours. Ben said the reason for the ban was an unfair crackdown on crypto-related content.
In the meantime, some Reddit users warn others through a thread to be careful before investing in coins BitBoy’s show recommends.
As the allegedly largest crypto channel on YouTube, it’s no doubt he has the audience necessary to move markets, at least with small cap coins. Yesterday, he dropped a video titled ““Top 5 coins CRUSHING the market NOW (MASSIVE Crypto GAINS)”. Ok, ignoring the incredibly sensationalist and clickbait title, the video showcased his top 5 altcoin picks for short term gains. His top pick was Frontier, a relatively small <$100m market cap coin. He didn’t even give any reasons why this was his top pick, all he did was tease a video he was going to drop the next day. Immediately, Frontier doubled in price. Is this legal? I’m not at liberty to say,” stated one user.
BitBoy Crypto X Ben Armstrong
It all came crashing down on Armstrong when Hit Network, the mother company of BitBoy Crypto announced the end of its relationship with Ben Armstrong, effectively removing him from the company he once created himself.
Hit Network CEO TJ Shedd said in the announcement that Armstrong’s removal should “help reconcile the emotional, physical and financial damage [Armstrong] has done to the employees of Hit Network & the BitBoy Crypto community.”
To no one’s surprise, Ben Armstrong responded through the official BenCoin Twitter account saying “This is Ben. TJ Shedd & Justin Williams have attempted a coup at my company. Just confirming what is going around. It’s true. There has been a mutiny at BitBoy Crypto & Hit Network. But it won’t work. They have no leverage. Until they can clone me, I have nothing to worry about”
There was even a Subreddit about the topic, titled “End Of An Era? – Ben Armstrong ”. And, it reads “Effective immediately, Ben Armstrong will no longer be working with Hit Network/BJ Investment Holdings and all subsidiary brands including but not limited to Bitboy Crypto and Around The Blockchain. This decision has not been easy. However, after long consideration, we are confident this is the only path forward.”
The comments below the announcement seemed mostly in favor of Armstrong’s removal.
On top of that, Ben Armstrong is now facing a class-action lawsuit alleging the YouTube star helped promote than now-collapsed FTX exchange.
Armstrong Revival
Just a few days after Armstrong’s dismissal from BitBoy Crypto, The channel released a video recorded by Ben Armstrong where he apologized for disappointing his fans, his family, and coworkers.
Armstrong also took the video as a chance to confront his audience about his infidelity and substance abuse.
“First, I’m sorry to the bit Squad. I know I let people down. I know that I put my family down. I’ve let the Bit Squad down. I’ve let everybody down. I’ve been at Rock Bottom before, I know what it feels like. I’m there again”
However, just five days after, Ben Armstrong released a video on his new YouTube channel, Ben Armstrong. The tone of voice he used during the new video is starkly different from the remorseful one used in the apology video.
Armstrong spoke in the recent video, addressing his dismissal from BitBoy Crypto, his past mistakes, including infidelity and substance abuse, and most importantly, his plans for the future.
“Guys, it has been a rough couple of weeks. I think everybody sees what I’ve been through and I just want you guys to know that I love you and I appreciate you. And, you have a new name. Your name used to be the Bit Squad but the Bit Squad goes away with the Bitboy.”
“This channel is going to go back to the roots of what made me who I am. We’re going to go back to low production value, high information value. Because at the end of the day how you get your information is not as important as the information that you get”.
At the time of publishing this article, the video had over 50k views, and his new channel has already gathered nearly 30k subscribers.
Ben Armstrong did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
