Propose an edit: Ben Pasternak

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Benjamin Joel Pasternak, born September 6, 1999 in Sydney, is an Australian entrepreneur and the founder of [[believe]], the [[Solana]] launchpad that drove the internet capital markets wave of 2025. He was one of the most publicized teenage app developers of the 2010s before pivoting to food technology and then to crypto.

## Early career

Pasternak built viral iOS games at 14, dropped out of school at 15, and shipped the social apps Flogg and Monkey, the latter a video chat app that reached roughly 10 million users before its acquisition by Holla in February 2018. In 2018 he co founded Simulate, the company behind NUGGS, a plant based chicken nugget brand that made him a fixture of young founder lists.

## Believe

In January 2025 Pasternak surfaced a Web3 startup called Clout, which let users trade tokens tied to internet personalities, and launched a token originally named PASTERNAK. In May 2025 he rebranded the company to Believe, renamed the token LAUNCHCOIN, and repositioned the platform around tokenizing startups rather than memes: founders could launch a coin by replying to a post on X. The relaunch was explosive, generating a reported $140 million in trading volume and $2.5 million in creator fees inside 48 hours, and set off the wider [[believe app wave]] as traders rotated into ICM tokens. For a stretch of mid 2025, Believe was the most credible challenger narrative to [[pump fun]] in [[the trenches]].

## Litigation and arrest

The platform's decline was as sharp as its rise. In October 2025 the team migrated from Launchcoin to a new BELIEVE token, a move a later lawsuit alleges created 333 million new tokens for insiders and diluted holders by about a third. Believe had traded over 6 billion dollars in tokens before the fall; BELIEVE itself dropped about 99 percent to under 0.00075 dollars, with the token's market capitalization under 900,000 dollars around the time of the arrest coverage below.

On March 23, 2026, [[Burwick Law]] filed a class action, Lee v. Pasternak, in the Southern District of New York against Pasternak, B24 Inc. and the Believe Foundation on behalf of buyers of PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN and BELIEVE, brought by investors Joshua Lee and Pierre Montmeas. The complaint alleges Pasternak claimed zero ownership of platform tokens while collecting roughly $54 million in fees, and that at least 12 public buyback promises went unfulfilled. The defendants have been served and the case is active; the claims are allegations and nothing has been proven.

Separately, Pasternak was arrested on April 22, 2026 at the Baccarat Hotel on West 53rd Street over a March 31, 2026 incident, facing one felony count of second degree strangulation plus two misdemeanor assault counts. The alleged victim is his ex girlfriend Evelyn Ha, a 27 year old YouTuber with over 530,000 subscribers; court papers allege he grabbed her neck with both hands and slammed a door on her. He pleaded not guilty and was released on recognizance after prosecutors sought 30,000 dollars bail, with a June 11, 2026 court date. All of these allegations are attributed to prosecutors and court papers. A detail repeated across trench coverage of the case: prosecutors claimed he was living at the 2,000 dollars a night hotel specifically to evade service of process in the Lee v. Pasternak class action, tying the two matters together even though the underlying criminal charge concerns a separate incident. Those charges are likewise accusations, with no reported conviction.

## Significance

Pasternak personifies the ICM moment: a genuine consumer product founder who briefly convinced the trenches that startup equity could trade like a meme coin, and whose platform's unraveling became one of the defining legal stories of 2026.

## References

- Wikipedia, Ben Pasternak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Pasternak
- crypto.news: https://crypto.news/class-action-claims-believe-founder-collected-54m-while-diluting-token-holders/
- burwick.law: https://www.burwick.law/insights/believe-lawsuit-update-proof-of-service-filed-in-lee-v-pasternak-class-action
- Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/365292/founder-solana-token-launchpad-believe-arrested
- The Block: https://www.theblock.co/post/398532/believe-founder-arrested-strangulation
- Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/profile/ben-pasternak/
- Cryptopolitan: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/vegan-millionaire-chokes-youtuber-crypto/
- X post by @WuBlockchain: https://x.com/WuBlockchain/status/2047886193057292647
- news.bitcoin.com: https://news.bitcoin.com/believe-founder-ben-pasternak-arrested-strangulation-token-collapses/

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