Coffeezilla responds to Logan Paul’s defamation lawsuit over CryptoZoo “scam”

Coffeezilla has responded after it was revealed he is facing a defamation lawsuit from Logan Paul for accusing CryptoZoo of being a “scam”.

YouTuber Stephen ‘Coffeezilla‘ Findeisen claimed the Prime co-founder’s CryptoZoo NFT scheme was Paul’s “biggest scam”, making multiple videos in an attempt to help buyers get back their money.

Despite Paul announcing a $1.3 million refund program, Findeisen stated it would only cover 12% of losses and in return, those accepting the refund would need to “drop 100% of the case.”

On June 27, 2024, Paul had enough and filed a 47-page lawsuit against the YouTuber for defamation, seeking $75,000 in compensatory damages. Now, just over a month later, Findeisen has finally hit back.

On August 5, Findeisen posted a 20-minute video to his YouTube channel discussing the lawsuit and accusing Paul of “trying to dodge accountability”. He also stated that Paul had “learned nothing” from CryptoZoo, except “how to silence people”.

However, Findeisen called the influencer-turned-wrestler “the biggest enemy” of his own lawsuit. This is due to past videos in which Paul praised the YouTuber’s investigative journalism and intentions: “Defamation requires actual malice and a reckless disregard for the truth.”

Findeisen theorized it was for this reason that Paul hadn’t sued him for the original deep dive on CryptoZoo, but instead two videos and a Tweet ‘advocating’ for victims of the “scam” to be refunded.

As seeking damages relies on “proving someone has harmed your reputation”, Findeisen pointed out that Paul’s continued success with Prime had left him “richer than ever” and stated the influencer’s reputation “as a scammer” was cemented before his videos.

Nonetheless, Findeisen admitted to making “one embarrassing mistake” that meant he now had to fight Paul in court with “personal funds” rather than relying on Media Insurance. Asking viewers to support the cause, Findeisen revealed merch from which 100% of profits would go toward legal costs.

The final part of Findeisen’s response looked into why Paul had filed a lawsuit now, over a year after the accused “scammer” had initially apologized.

“Six days before the lawsuit, I had featured Logan Paul in a teaser for a video,” Findeisen said. “21 hours before the lawsuit, I had texted Logan for comment… I told him he had 24 hours to respond and Logan sued me three hours before the deadline.”

The initial email delivering news of the lawsuit allegedly “threatened” to hold Findeisen “accountable” if he continued to “report on this new story” about Liquid Marketplace, leading the YouTuber to believe it “was not designed to win but to shut [him] up.”

While he admitted it could all be a coincidence, Findeisen didn’t think so: “[Paul] can try to silence me by weaponizing the law, he can sue me for doing my job, he can sue me for asking questions, and he can sue me for asking for refunds.”