Ben Pasternak, the 26-year-old founder of Solana-based token launchpad Believe, was arrested in New York on charges of second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault as the platform’s native token trades 99.8% below its all-time high. A class action lawsuit alleges he systematically extracted $54 million in fees from roughly $6 billion in trading volume across three successive tokens.
Key Takeaways
- Pasternak, 26, was charged with second-degree strangulation and two counts of 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 “ran the same play three times” across PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE, extracting $54M in fees from roughly $6B in trading volume.
- Pasternak was reportedly staying at a $2,000-per-night hotel to avoid civil lawsuit service at the time of his arrest.
Three Tokens, One Alleged Playbook
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’s native token reaching a peak market cap of $370 million before a forced migration reset the table for existing holders.
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’ stakes by roughly one third. Anyone who missed the October 29, 2025 deadline had their holdings permanently destroyed.
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 “ran the same play three times, under three different token names,” pointing to PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE as successive iterations of the same alleged scheme.
Across the full lifecycle of the platform, Believe processed roughly $6 billion in trading volume 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.
Arrest in New York as Legal Pressure Compounds
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.
According to Wu Blockchain, 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. 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.