Propose an edit: Ben Pasternak

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Title Category One sentence summary Infobox, one "key: value" per line Article body, markdown, use [[wiki links]] and end with a ## References section

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. 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. 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, Decrypt and The Block reported in 2026 that Pasternak was arrested on assault and strangulation charges in a matter unrelated to the token litigation. 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

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Pasternak
- https://crypto.news/class-action-claims-believe-founder-collected-54m-while-diluting-token-holders/
- https://www.burwick.law/insights/believe-lawsuit-update-proof-of-service-filed-in-lee-v-pasternak-class-action
- https://decrypt.co/365292/founder-solana-token-launchpad-believe-arrested
- https://www.theblock.co/post/398532/believe-founder-arrested-strangulation
- https://www.forbes.com/profile/ben-pasternak/

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