Richard ‘FaZe Banks’ Bengtson, CEO of content creation organisation, FaZe Clan, has stepped down following fallout from the alleged “rug pull” regarding cryptocurrency MLG.
Banks announced that he will step away from the position and social media as a whole following the controversy; however, he continued to deny his alleged part in the ‘pump and dump’ allegations surrounding the currency.
In the tweet, Banks states, “I’ve never scammed anyone a day in my f**king life. The entire narrative is unfair and part of the reason it exists is cause my “FaZe” name is so easily farmed and manipulated.
“The fact this is affecting the guys at all, is whack. So for the time being, I’m gunna be stepping away from not only FaZe, but all this internet shit. It’s destroying my life inside and out. Sucks my entire life gets ruined over something I didn’t even do. The real ones know. I wish I could say I’ll be back, but I really don’t know if I will.”
The news is unlikely to affect FaZe Esports, a separate entity from the content creation division, FaZe Media. Unlike FaZe Media, GameSquare owns 100% of FaZe Esports and has sole control of esports operations. FaZe Clan have notable teams in Counter-Strike, Halo, Call of Duty esports and more.
What happened with FaZe Banks?
MLG coin (aka 360noscope420blazeit) is a meme cryptocurrency, in the vein of Dogecoin, PEPE and others. The cryptocurrency was seemingly promoted by Banks, FaZe, and Kick streamer Adin Ross in the early portion of the year, with the market gap growing dramatically from about $3m to over $166m at its peak in mid-January.
Shortly after, the value of the current collapsed dramatically, receding to a current market cap of $12m according to cryptocurrency data aggregator, coingecko.com.
The situation echoes various similar Cryptocurrency “rug pulls,” where influencers invest in a currency, promote it, and then rapidly sell it, banking the profits – an accusation Banks denies, claiming he “never ever sold” in a leaked group chat message accusing Adin Ross of being a “bad actor.”
Ross later corroborated the authenticity of the message, stating: “The banks screenshot is real. Sh8t sad asf, if you guys think that mlg being rugged was me im sorry to tell u it wasn’t. There’s a reason that entire house is silent, truth will come out eventually. I’m just more hurt on the fact someone I call my brother is behind my back”
The rift has led to a series of remonstrations between Ross and Banks.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.