A YouTuber tricked an MMA fighter into sharing allegations that 20 crypto projects he plugged were scams

• Coffeezilla, a YouTuber who targets shady finance schemes, posted about MMA fighter Dillon Danis.
• In a new video he accused Danis of scamming followers, and tricked him into promoting fake NFTs.

A YouTuber tricked MMA fighter Dillon Danis into circulating a link alleging that crypto schemes he promoted to his followers were scams.

Coffeezilla, whose real name is Stephen Findeisen, posted a video detailing the prank on Danis, in which the fighter appeared to readily accept $1,000 to post the link without clearly understanding what it was.

Danis, a Bellator MMA fighter, didn't respond to Insider's request to comment on the incident. His publicist suggested that Insider send him a direct message on Twitter, which went unanswered.

Findeisen is a YouTuber with 2.5 million followers who focuses on exposing shady financial schemes. Many are so-called "rug pulls" in which cryptocurrencies or NFTs are hyped to inflate their value, only for a few investors to suddenly cash out and leave everyone else with close to nothing.

In his video, Findeisen used an intermediary to offer Danis cash to promote a link to what appeared to be an NFT project.

It came alongside a lengthy contract which explained that the link would soon switch to a site listing crypto projects Danis had promoted in the past, describing them as scams.

The contract said that as part of the deal Danis agreed to be "the butt of the joke." Danis accepted the terms without question, per messaging screenshots in the video. He went on to post the link, which has since been deleted.

"Check this out! SourzNFT Candies are Moonbound! #NFA" the post said, according to an archived version.

The link pointed to a site asking "Have You Been Scammed By Dillon Danis?" with screenshots to dozens of tweets sent by Danis promoting various cryptocurrencies and NFT projects.

Insider was unable to independently verify whether any of the schemes were indeed scams, though many of the coins including Daddy Doge and Rocket Raccoon now have a very low value, suggesting that investors got burned.

Danis not been named in any US lawsuits brought by crypto investors, per an Insider search of court records, unlike other celebrities including Logan Paul, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy.

Findeisen said that he chose to focus on Danis in the video because of what he said was hypocrisy.

Danis criticized Logan Paul for a disaster-ridden crypto venture called CryptoZoo, calling Paul a "scumbag" and accusing him of scamming his followers. Findeisen said that Danis had done the exact same thing.

In the video, Findeisen said the original deal with Danis was to pay $5,000 for hosting the tweet for 24 hours — but that he only sent $1,000 because the post wasn't up for that long.

Findeisen posted screenshots showing that he sent $1,000 USD in two transactions via the crypto site Coinbase, but Insider hasn't seen independent proof of the payment.

Findeisen became interested in scams in general when he was younger and his mom was diagnosed with cancer, he told the New Yorker in a recent profile. He became suspicious of the "snake oil" she bought from various salespeople, and retained his skepticism from there.

Insider reached out to Findeisen for further comment but didn't hear back before publication.