Who is BitBoy Crypto? Ben Armstrong’s Many Controversies Revealed

Things keep on going from bad to worse for BitBoy.

The crypto influencer — whose real name is Ben Armstrong — was riding high with a YouTube channel that had hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

But back in the summer of 2023, while altcoins were in the grip of a punishing bear market, BitBoy was going through a dramatic downturn of his own.

In a damning livestream on the show he helped create, a statement was read out that said:

“BJ Investment Holdings, the parent company of HIT Network, took decisive legal action in removing Ben Armstrong from the company, and specifically the BitBoy Crypto brand.”

It was alleged that Armstrong had relapsed into substance abuse — and had caused “emotional, physical and financial damage” to the company’s employees.

BitBoy came out swinging from these claims — and posted a copy of a document that appeared to show he had tested negative for a slew of major drugs.

I’ll take “Things That Never Happened” for $500, Nicholas. pic.twitter.com/Det0J9H0Y8

— $BEN (@joinBENCoin) August 29, 2023

Nonetheless, in the months that followed, it was clear to see that BitBoy was unraveling. In September 2023, he broadcast a surreal 37-minute livestream outside of a former colleague’s house. Shouting and out of breath, he claimed Carlos Diaz had his Lamborghini stored in his garage — and he wanted it back.

That broadcast continued as he was confronted by the police, with BitBoy telling officers that he had received death threats. He was subsequently arrested.

The entire insane 37-minute #bitboy stream starting from Carlo's driveway (him on his property) to him ending the stream. @HitNetwork_ @NickDimondi Insane! #crypto @AltcoinDailyio @cryptoblood_ @CryptoSavy1 @atozy pic.twitter.com/3YSd3pRLIm

— Ramekin (@iamramekin) September 26, 2023

By October 2023, BitBoy confirmed that he was getting a divorce from his wife Bethany — in a post on X that also tagged his mistress. That’s certainly one way of making the announcement.

Sometimes in life you make mistakes you can't undo. Sad to tell you all that @Bethanyliterary and I are getting a divorce. She filed divorce papers to me today.

To get it out of the way so there are no questions, yes, I am with @DuchessOfDeFi.

— The BitBoy (@BenArmstrongsX) October 24, 2023

The 42-year-old has, in his own words, admitted that he’s currently going through a “midlife crisis” — losing his family, fortune and career in one fell swoop. And while he has started an alternative YouTube channel, which has now grown to 147,000 subscribers, it only attracts a tiny fraction of the views his old platform received.

What’s Happening Now?

That brings us neatly to the latest crisis facing BitBoy, who has been arrested in Florida and is now being held without bail.

Back on March 21, he had revealed to his followers that he had been sending emails to a local judge while acting as his own attorney.

At this point, it’s unclear what those emails contained — but BitBoy claimed in that same post that public officials were “hiding corruption one day at a time.”

Another legal headache facing BitBoy concerns the class action lawsuit filed over the disastrous launch of his $BEN token, with investors claiming they made significant losses despite being promised substantial returns.

Concerns about BitBoy’s practices have been rumbling on for several years. Back in November 2021, a rival YouTuber called Atozy described Armstrong as a “shady dirtbag who milks his audience for a quick buck rather than giving them genuine advice.”

Just some of the claims made against BitBoy in this video include stealing work from other creators, and pumping small-cap altcoins. Atozy warned:

“He simply cannot be trusted with financial advice because you don’t know if he’s trying to enrich you or himself.”

That video — which remains online to this day — swiftly led to BitBoy launching a defamation lawsuit. Atozy documented this in a subsequent video, and began crowdfunding to cover his costs.

BitBoy hastily rowed back on this legal action after news of the court filings were made public — and apologized in one of his videos.

“I didn’t understand that my name is now so big that, if I file a lawsuit, it will be found and made public. Obviously, if this would have been public, I wouldn’t have done it. Not because I want to hide it — all we are trying to do is get him to take down the video that has factually wrong information, that has implications for me as a person. When my kids Google their dad, you know what comes up? That video. You ever had your kids look you up in the face and ask ‘Dad, are you a scammer?'”

Complete with a damning New York Times profile into his rise and fall, BitBoy’s influence is now a shadow of what it once was — and his latest arrest is a sign that things are going to get worse, and may never get better.

Nonetheless, he remains determined that his videos and analysis are the only thing that crypto enthusiasts need to get rich — posting:

“If you follow me and watch my channel I guarantee you will make money in crypto. I’m playing on a higher level than everyone else. It’s going to take about 3 months for people to realize this.”