Ben Armstrong, widely recognized as ‘BitBoy Crypto,’ has recently found himself embroiled in a legal dispute with his former partners from HIT Network. The legal battle centers around the seizure of assets registered under their company’s name, assets that Armstrong contends rightfully belong to him.
In an effort to garner support from the crypto community, the former BitBoy Crypto employee has taken to sharing emotional videos detailing his situation. On September 21, in response to purported requests for a donation address from the XRP community, Armstrong disclosed a multi-millionaire XRP address, stating:
“Several individuals have inquired about an XRP donation address for my legal fund (…) XRP Address: ‘rJmXYcKCGJSayp4sAdp6Eo4CdSFtDVv7WG’ (…) Thanks for the support.”
— Ben Armstrong (@BenArmstrongsX)
In the wake of this announcement, thousands of dollars’ worth of XRP have already been sent to the provided Ben Armstrong address, with many of these payments originating from known centralized exchange accounts. Notably, the BitBoy Crypto address in question currently holds over 160 million XRP tokens.
Remarkably, this address, purportedly under Armstrong’s control, boasts a balance of 161.54 million XRP tokens, equivalent to $81.94 million. The first recorded transaction involving this address occurred on February 19, 2023, with an initial transfer of 10 XRP from a Crypto.com account.
An examination of the historic transaction data for the address over the last 30 days reveals a consistent daily flow of payments dating back to August 22. On September 5, there was a notable spike, with over 5 million XRP distributed across 181 payments.
Following the address’s disclosure on social media, the number of payments increased, albeit not significantly in terms of volume. This pattern suggests that the transactions primarily consist of smaller amounts, characteristic of donations. On September 21 alone, BitBoy’s XRP address recorded a total of 230 payments, accumulating to 315,360 XRP, equivalent to $160,800.
Crucially, at present, it remains impossible to ascertain whether these funds originate from Ben Armstrong’s personal holdings, contributions to his channel (formerly owned by his dissolved company), or an undisclosed source.
The question thus arises: Does this XRP address genuinely belong to BitBoy Crypto?
Intriguingly, GuinnessStache (@guinnessstache) has proposed that this address might be affiliated with a centralized exchange, potentially linked to a private account controlled by Ben Armstrong through the tag “3259094467.” In such a scenario, the $80 million in question would likely belong to the mentioned institution rather than Armstrong himself.
