TLDR:
- Milestone: An American magistrate judge on July 10, 2025, dismissed the erstwhile assistant to Logan Paul, Danielle Strobel, from the class action suit for the now-dead CryptoZoo NFT project for lack of jurisdiction, Forbes reports.
- Narrative: The CryptoZoo saga, which has been alleged to be an NFT scam, has breaking news since Strobel’s peripheral role doesn’t tie her to the Texas case, and the court hearing for the defamation suit by YouTuber Logan Paul against Coffeezilla is pending.
In the latest of the CryptoZoo scandal drama epic saga’s larger developments, it was reported by Forbes on July 10, 2025, that the U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald C. Griffin ruled to dismiss Logan Paul’s former aide, Danielle Strobel, from a Western District of Texas federal class action suit. The class action suit claims CryptoZoo, the blockchain play-to-earn game pushed by Paul, was an NFT scam to cheat investors in fraudulent manner, but the court did not believe Strobel’s minor part was enough to establish jurisdiction, one of the cornerstones in the burgeoning body of theater in the courts.
The class action suit, according to Forbes, accuses defendants and Logan Paul of selling CryptoZoo NFTs and “Zoo Tokens” on the basis of the promise of never-delivered play in the game, labeling it a pump-and-dump scam. CryptoZoo, launched in September of 2021, promised to be one of the “autonomous ecosystems” in which the players would own, sell, and exchange virtual pets on the blockchain, bringing them from NFT eggs to life. The plaintiffs were allegedly duped into purchasing digital assets whose value immediately dwindled to the amount of massive financial loss. Strobel was shown to be one of the 1% foundation holders of the equity with early token access and admin participation and was named in the suit. However, in the ruling by Judge Griffin, she found that her actions were insufficiently tied to the State of Texas or its people, writing, “Plaintiffs neither show Defendant Strobel aimed her tort at the forum, nor had knowledge of her alleged in-conspirators’ tortious propensities,” according to Forbes.
The motion, if it were to be granted by the sitting district judge, would relieve Strobel from the action without prejudice, i.e., plaintiffs cannot sue anew against her immediately. The court also denied motions to amend the complaint or for additional jurisdictional discovery, according to the July 7, 2025, court filing. The decision redrew the scope of the class action, pending to date against Paul and other defendants, but highlights how difficult it is to find jurisdiction in crypto cases.
The CryptoZoo lawsuits go beyond the class action, according to Forbes. Paul is also in the middle of defamation proceedings against YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, also known as Coffeezilla, for using the term to tag Paul in the highly viewed watchable video series. The defamation suit filed in 2024 claims Findeisen has made “maliciously false statements” to make Paul concerned about his involvement. Magistrate Judge Henry J. Bemporad gave the green light for the suit to continue on March 26, 2025, after finding Findeisen’s application of the term “scam” to mean the truth and hence libelous for the laws of the state of Texas, in denying his motion to dismiss. Paul has also started an NFT refund program to compensate some buyers of CryptoZoo, asking them to forego future lawsuits, according to Forbes.
The CryptoZoo scandal, in the framework of the turbulent crypto landscape shaped by occurrences as strange as July 4, 2025’s $8.69 billion whale swap between Bitcoins, highlights the danger of star NFT enterprises. Both defamation and class action lawsuits hang in the balance, with Paul’s refund effort battling to keep spillover in check. The motion for dismissal of Strobel is, according to Forbes’ Sebastian Sinclair, proof of the declining jurisdiction of the law, but the bigger scandal continues to deny the credentials of star-promoted crypto enterprises.
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