Key Takeaways:
Pasternak, 26, was charged with second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault over a March 31 incident; he has pleaded not responsible, with a court docket date set for June 11. A category motion criticism alleges he “ran the identical play thrice” throughout PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE, extracting $54M in charges from roughly $6B in buying and selling quantity. Pasternak was reportedly staying at a $2,000-per-night lodge to keep away from civil lawsuit service on the time of his arrest.
Three Tokens, One Alleged Playbook
Pasternak based Launchcoin, a Solana-based social token launchpad that enables customers to launch tokens tied to on-line personalities and communities. The platform grew shortly, with Launchcoin’s native token reaching a peak market cap of $370 million earlier than a compelled migration reset the desk for present holders.
In October 2025, Pasternak introduced Launchcoin could be retired and changed with a brand new token known as BELIEVE. The migration was obligatory, with a two-week conversion window. The swap created 333 million new tokens distributed to insider-linked wallets, shrinking present holders’ stakes by roughly one third. Anybody who missed the October 29, 2025 deadline had their holdings completely destroyed.
The category motion criticism alleges the migration was not an improve however a structured reset engineered to extract recent charges from a brand new base of holders. The submitting states Pasternak “ran the identical play thrice, underneath three completely different token names,” pointing to PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE as successive iterations of the identical alleged scheme.
Throughout the total lifecycle of the platform, Consider processed roughly $6 billion in buying and selling quantity from which Pasternak allegedly extracted an estimated $54 million in charges. Shopper losses are estimated within the lots of of tens of millions of {dollars}. The BELIEVE token now trades 99.8% under its all-time excessive of $0.35.
Arrest in New York as Authorized Stress Compounds
The prison prices stem from a March 31 incident in New York. Pasternak faces one rely of second-degree strangulation and two counts of third-degree assault with intent to trigger bodily damage. The sufferer has been broadly recognized on-line as Evelyn Ha, a Tiktok influencer whom Pasternak had been publicly courting since mid-2024. He has pleaded not responsible and his subsequent court docket look is scheduled for June 11.
In keeping with Wu Blockchain, Pasternak was staying at a lodge charging $2,000 per night time on the time of the arrest, which prosecutors allege was partially an effort to keep away from being served within the ongoing civil proceedings. The arrest locations Pasternak underneath simultaneous strain throughout prison and civil jurisdictions. No formal prison prices tied particularly to the token allegations have been filed.
