In short
- Prosecutors charged Benjamin Pasternak with strangulation and assault over a March 31 incident.
- Pasternak was arraigned and pleaded not responsible; his subsequent court docket date is in June.
- The arrest provides to mounting authorized troubles over allegedly misleading token gross sales.
Benjamin Pasternak, founder of the Solana-based token launchpad Believe, was arrested Tuesday and charged with one rely of second-degree strangulation and two counts of third-degree assault with intent to trigger bodily harm over a March 31 incident.
Pasternak has pleaded not responsible and is scheduled to return to court docket June 11, per court records within the New York State Unified Courtroom System.
The arrest comes as Pasternak faces civil allegations, as nicely. A class action lawsuit filed March 23 within the Southern District of New York alleges Pasternak claimed “zero possession” within the Believe platform’s tokens whereas ostensibly amassing creator charges on each commerce, reneging on not less than 12 public buyback guarantees and executing a token migration that allegedly diluted holders by about 33%.
The grievance alleges Pasternak “ran the identical play 3 times, beneath three completely different token names” throughout $PASTERNAK, $LAUNCHCOIN, and $BELIEVE, because the Believe platform processed roughly $6 billion in buying and selling quantity and extracted an estimated $54 million in charges.
Holders who did not convert their tokens by the October 29, 2025 migration deadline noticed their balances completely destroyed, per the submitting, which estimates shopper losses within the a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars}.
The go well with brings six claims spanning New York shopper safety regulation, California false promoting statutes, and customary regulation theories. Plaintiffs additionally search an injunction freezing on-chain belongings, together with the flywheel pockets and token treasury.
Pasternak co-founded plant-based meals firm Simulate in early 2018, elevating $50 million in a Collection B spherical at a $260 million valuation earlier than promoting the corporate in October 2024. He launched his first crypto token the next January.
Late final yr, Avi Patel, founder of decentralized knowledge market Kled, accused Pasternak of dumping KLED tokens on the open market in breach of a personal OTC-only settlement.
Patel alleged that Pasternak offered greater than 1% of the KLED provide through the venture’s September app launch, then resumed promoting throughout a later replace. The Kled group repurchased Pasternak’s place twice over-the-counter, lowering his stake within the venture from 6% to 1.7%.
The Believe platform’s native token has crashed 99.8% since its Might 2025 all-time excessive at $0.35, and has fallen practically 15% on the day to a latest worth of $0.0007, per CoinGecko knowledge.
“Our group is personally involved by the general public experiences of home violence involving Ben Pasternak,” stated Burwick Regulation founder Max Burwick, counsel for the plaintiffs within the civil go well with. “Our ideas are with the alleged sufferer. As to the federal class motion lawsuit in opposition to defendant Ben Pasternak, Burwick Regulation is concentrated on zealously representing our purchasers and the proposed class. We don’t remark on litigation technique or anticipated movement apply.”
Decrypt reached out to Believe for remark however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
Editor’s word: This story was up to date after publication to incorporate remark from Burwick Regulation.
Each day Debrief E-newsletter
Begin on daily basis with the highest information tales proper now, plus authentic options, a podcast, movies and extra.
