FaZe Clan CEO Richard “Faze Banks” Bengston is under fire for supporting a potentially sketchy cryptocurrency in a since-deleted tweet.
Earlier in July, FaZe Clan suspended multiple team members and content creators for their involvement in promoting SaveTheKids, a cryptocurrency considered a “pump-and-dump” scheme that crashed in value after the FaZe Clan members tweeted about the coin to their fans.
In response to the possibly illegal operation, FaZe Banks commented that he had “zero involvement or knowledge” about the SaveTheKids “garbage.” The rest of FaZe Clan was also unaware, he added.
“The people involved acted as individuals and did all that shit on their own and have been removed as a result. Nobody’s more upset about all of this than we are. We took action the moment this was brought to our attention,” FaZe Banks said.
FaZe Banks explained that the team took action as soon as they found out about the SaveTheKids situation. He called it “embarrassing” and added that he wished the young pro gamers had asked him about it beforehand so he could have “shut the entire thing down before it was too late.”
I don’t know how this isn’t 100% clear at this point, but I had zero involvement or knowledge of this SaveTheKids garbage and neither did FaZe Clan. The people involved acted as individuals and did all that shit on their own and have been removed as a result.
— FaZe Banks (@Banks) July 7, 2021
In response to FaZe Bank’s Twitter rant, a lot of people in the esports community pointed out that the CEO had promoted another sketchy cryptocurrency in the past. FaZe Banks had promoted BANKSOCIAL.io in late May. The since-deleted tweet said that it was a “project I fuck with heavily and truly believe is the next one to pop.” FaZe Banks had also allegedly given away $10,000 worth of Bsocial crypto coin to a random winner.
Did FaZe Banks scam followers with Bsocial crypto?
FaZe Banks denied selling any of his Bsocial coins after the screenshots were shared. He said that Bsocial is a legit crypto company unlike SaveTheKids. FaZe Banks claims he deleted the tweet because it was a giveaway and he “always deletes” giveaway tweets. So far, nothing much more is known about FaZe Banks’ involvement with Bsocial or why it declined in value after his promoting it.
For many people in the investment scene, cryptocurrency is a very risky investment that’s often shaky and unstable compared to other investment opportunities. This led many to question why FaZe Banks would promote a cryptocurrency at all. It also made the esports community increasingly concerned with the number of influencers promoting crypto coins to younger audiences who may not be aware of the risk and could potentially be taken advantage of.
