Paul “Ice Poseidon” Denino, a former Twitch star who now streams on YouTube after the Amazon-owned platform banned him in 2017, was caught in a flagrant crypto scheme in which he took some $US500,000 (A$694,100) from his fans…and kept most of it. Crypto bros are the worst. This scam, uncovered by YouTuber Coffeezilla and first reported TheGamer, truly underscores that.
Ice Poseidon was a big Twitch name in the mid-2010s, rising to prominence around 2015 for streaming Jagex’s MMORPG Old School Runescape. His time on the platform was dicey. Ice Poseidon was suspended several times up until April 2017 when Twitch permanently banned him for being swatted on a plane. It was allegedly a hoax he orchestrated with his viewers to have the police called on an American Airlines flight to Phoenix for a bomb threat. Ice Poseidon’s since moved to YouTube after Mixer shut down in June 2020. All of this is to say Ice Poseidon has had a pretty shady past.
So what happened this time? Coffeezilla, a YouTuber who investigates fraudsters and scams, posted a 23-minute video breaking it down. In short, Ice Poseidon tricked his followers to invest in CxCoin, a platform the streamer founded for content creators to get cryptocurrency donations, then pulled the rug from everyone. He took that money ($US500,000 (A$694,100) in total), pocketed $US300,000 (A$416,460), and allegedly bought a Tesla.
Kotaku reached out to Ice Poseidon for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.
That’s shady! But shadier than the scheme is how remorseless Ice Poseidon sounded on Coffeezilla’s video. He not only didn’t seem to feel bad, admitting to screwing over every single one of his fans who invested in his bullshit CxCoin that only took him two weeks to abandon, but Ice Poseidon also said he wouldn’t return the money. He’s “looking out” for himself and blamed everyone else for “putting too much emotion into it.” For the record, CxCoin is worth nothing right now. According to cryptocurrency data analysis sites like CoinGecko and Live Coin Watch, CxCoin has tanked to $US0.000000002283. But sure, it’s everyone else’s fault. That totally tracks.
“Part of the responsibility is on [the fans] as well for putting too much emotion into it,” Ice Poseidon said. “Nobody deserves [to get ripped off]. Sometimes you have to look out for yourself.”
During their chat, Ice Poseidon told Coffeezilla he could give the money back but had no intention to because he’s looking out for himself. Sometime on January 26, though, Ice Poseidon had a slight change of heart. He agreed to give $US155,000 (A$215,171) back, but Coffeezilla found out Ice Poseidon only returned $US47,000 (A$65,245). He still pocketed more than he gave back.
After realizing a story would be run on this: Ice told me he was going to ‘return $155K’, which is a small fraction of what he took.
However he once again has lied, because to date— only $40K has been returned to the liquidity pool. pic.twitter.com/E1rMecWU3U
— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) January 31, 2022
This entire situation sucks, and I can’t imagine losing money like this. It’s not the first time an influencer has used their clout to scam fans out of money, either. A few FaZe Clan members, including Jarvis and Kay, were caught and reprimanded for their involvement in the Save The Kids crypto scheme. Parasocial relationships are weird so be mindful of who you follow.
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