Ben Pasternak Arrested; Believe Token Collapses 99%

Ben Pasternak, a 26-year-old founder of the Solana-based token platform Believe, was arrested in New York on charges of second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault following an incident on March 31. The arrest comes as the platform’s native token has lost roughly 99% of its value from its peak and a class action lawsuit alleges Pasternak collected about $54 million in fees.

Prosecutors allege Pasternak committed one count of second-degree strangulation and two counts of third-degree assault with intent to cause physical injury in the March 31 incident. The alleged victim has been identified online as Evelyn Ha, a content creator. Pasternak pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court on June 11. Authorities assert he was staying at a hotel charging $2,000 per night at the time of the arrest, which they say was partly to avoid being served in the pending civil case.

The class action complaint, filed against Pasternak and the platforms he founded, contends a repeated pattern across three token iterations: PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN and BELIEVE. The filing states the platforms processed about $6 billion in trading volume and that Pasternak earned an estimated $54 million in fees. The complaint seeks damages on behalf of investors and estimates consumer losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pasternak launched Launchcoin as a Solana-based social token launchpad that allowed creators and communities to issue tokens tied to personalities and groups. Launchcoin’s native token reached a peak market capitalization near $370 million before a later migration altered the token structure for existing holders. In October 2025, Pasternak announced Launchcoin would be retired and replaced with a new token named BELIEVE.

The migration to BELIEVE was mandatory and ran on a two-week conversion window that closed on October 29, 2025. Court filings state the swap created 333 million new tokens that plaintiffs say were distributed to wallets linked to insiders, reducing existing holders’ stakes by roughly one third. The complaint says anyone who missed the conversion deadline had their prior holdings permanently destroyed and characterizes the migration as a reset that generated fresh fee revenue.

Market data show the BELIEVE token collapsed from an all-time high of $0.35 to trading about 99.8% lower. The class action uses the reported trading volume and migration events to calculate the $54 million fee estimate.

No criminal charges related specifically to the token operations have been filed; the current criminal case concerns the assault allegations from March 31. The arrest and the civil complaint have placed Pasternak under concurrent criminal and civil legal scrutiny as both matters move through the courts.