The emergence of the influencer class on almost every social media platform has been nothing short of stratospheric, and it has gained special favor with the new, media-savvy, rich elite. Unfortunately, the growing inclination of the new affluent elite to sue detractors shows that they are precisely the same as the old wealthy elite.
While there are hundreds of new influencers in the cryptocurrency space, only a select handful, like Ran Neuner and Ben Armstrong (also known as BitBoy Crypto on most social media platforms), have managed to get widespread attention.
Together, the two have millions of YouTube subscribers, more than a million Twitter followers, and over 500,000 Instagram followers, so they have a substantial influence over the investments they recommend, parody, or otherwise offer advice on. This enormous fan base also gives them the resources and time they need to pursue everyone who desires to look into their individual history.
BitBoy
Ben’s narrative is one of redemption: a former meth addict who became a preacher and CEO of a recovery facility finds a home in DeFi and begins offering bitcoin trading guidance in 2018. Since then, he hasn’t turned back.
Ben remarked casually that he “is authentic… the same person on-camera as off-camera” when asked by the Washington Post about how he rose to “crypto influencer” status (this is the actual job title he lists on LinkedIn) with over a million subscribers on YouTube and nearly 2.7 million followers on TikTok before his account was permanently banned in February of 2022.
However, the genuine persona appears to be evaporating following the filing (and subsequent dropping) of a lawsuit against popular YouTuber Atozy for disparaging his videos.
Ran Neuner
Ran Neuner is a CEO, founder, influencer, investor, and CEO, yet it’s unlikely that anybody outside of the Bitcoin Twitter community is aware of this. Ran, who has long called Johannesburg, South Africa, home, is now an independent media personality. Ran was originally featured on a CNBC Africa series called Crypto Trader, but he now publishes videos on his YouTube channel, Crypto Banter.
Ran started off in marketing. In reality, he asserts that before selling “The Creative Counsel” to Publicis Groupe for millions of dollars, he built and ran the “biggest marketing agency” on the African continent for years.
At this moment, Ran created his “OnChain Capital” fund and reportedly dove into the world of cryptocurrencies by getting in touch with “people like Brock Pierce” and others. The sudden expansion started right then.
Ran has a sizable online presence on Twitter and YouTube, with 580,000 and 630,000 followers, respectively. This is meant to imply that a large number of people respect his trading counsel and believe he could be an authority on cryptocurrencies.
However, as Ran’s notoriety and fortune have increased, so too has the scrutiny of his trading activities and public project endorsements. Ran has been sending cease and desist letters and subliminal threats of doxxing (a term used to describe unmasking anonymous people online) to critics and whistleblowers on Twitter lately as allegations of pumping and dumping and paid endorsements involving his money and personal wallets have surfaced.
