Believe Founder Arrested on Strangulation Charges as Token Collapses 99%

Key Takeaways:

• Pasternak, 26, was charged with second-degree strangulation and third-degree battle implicit a March 31 incident; helium has pleaded not guilty, with a tribunal day acceptable for June 11.
• A people enactment ailment alleges helium “ran the aforesaid play 3 times” crossed PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE, extracting $54M successful fees from astir $6B successful trading volume.
• Pasternak was reportedly staying astatine a $2,000-per-night edifice to debar civilian suit work astatine the clip of his arrest.

Three Tokens, One Alleged Playbook

Pasternak founded Launchcoin, a Solana-based societal token launchpad that allows users to motorboat tokens tied to online personalities and communities. The level grew quickly, with Launchcoin’s autochthonal token reaching a highest market cap of $370 cardinal earlier a forced migration reset the array for existing holders.

Image source: X

In October 2025, Pasternak announced Launchcoin would beryllium retired and replaced with a caller token called BELIEVE. The migration was mandatory, with a two-week conversion window. The swap created 333 cardinal caller tokens distributed to insider-linked wallets, shrinking existing holders’ stakes by astir 1 third. Anyone who missed the October 29, 2025 deadline had their holdings permanently destroyed.

The people enactment ailment alleges the migration was not an upgrade but a structured reset engineered to extract caller fees from a caller basal of holders. The filing states Pasternak “ran the aforesaid play 3 times, nether 3 antithetic token names,” pointing to PASTERNAK, LAUNCHCOIN, and BELIEVE arsenic successive iterations of the same alleged scheme.

Across the afloat lifecycle of the platform, Believe processed astir $6 cardinal successful trading volume from which Pasternak allegedly extracted an estimated $54 cardinal successful fees. Consumer losses are estimated successful the hundreds of millions of dollars. The BELIEVE token present trades 99.8% beneath its all-time precocious of $0.35.

Arrest successful New York arsenic Legal Pressure Compounds

The transgression charges stem from a March 31 incidental successful New York. Pasternak faces 1 number of second-degree strangulation and 2 counts of third-degree battle with intent to origin carnal injury. The unfortunate has been wide identified online arsenic Evelyn Ha, a Tiktok influencer whom Pasternak had been publically dating since mid-2024. He has pleaded not blameworthy and his adjacent tribunal quality is scheduled for June 11.

According to Wu Blockchain, Pasternak was staying astatine a edifice charging $2,000 per nighttime astatine the clip of the arrest, which prosecutors allege was successful portion an effort to debar being served successful the ongoing civilian proceedings. The apprehension places Pasternak nether simultaneous unit crossed transgression and civilian jurisdictions. No ceremonial transgression charges tied specifically to the token allegations person been filed.