In summary
- Hawk Tuah Girl (Hailey Welch) faced criticism for launching a meme token that quickly collapsed, leaving investors with significant losses.
- Ryan Selkis generated controversy with divisive comments on networks and controversial tactics to support Trump’s re-election.
- Jonathan and Tanner Adam were accused of running a crypto Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 80 investors of $60 million.
- Gary Gensler, chairman of the SEC, led a harsh regulatory offensive against cryptocurrencies, causing tensions in the industry.
While the Cryptocurrency market’s latest bull run has put extra money in the pockets of industry players, Saint Nick is preparing to put coal in some of its stockings.
From controversial founders to outright scammers, several key figures in the cryptocurrency world have been placed on Santa’s “Blacklist” in 2024.
Here are Decrypt’s picks of the seven villains in the cryptocurrency world this year:
Hawk Tuah Girl (Hailey Welch)
Viral internet star Hailey Welch, also known as “Hawk Tuah Girl,” was catapulted into shitcoin superstardom earlier this month when she announced the launch of her HAWK meme cryptocurrency.
But Welch’s crypto debut went awry shortly after HAWK’s launch, with cryptocurrency investors pointing out that the token sale had all the major hallmarks of an insider scam.
Hawk-eyed traders noted that Welch’s team held between 80-90% of HAWK’s supply on launch day, potentially allowing them to manipulate the price of the token.
Welch’s HAWK token had a market capitalization of $490 million shortly after its debut in the first week of December. However, its price quickly fell to less than 5% of its initial value within a few hours after its launch.
A law firm has sued its business partners over the collapse, however the influencer recently spoke out to say she is working with the lawyers and claim she was not responsible for the disaster.
Ryan Selkis
Messari founder Ryan Selkis generated both controversy and drama within the crypto community in 2024.
From criticizing his political adversaries to evoking another U.S. civil war, Selkis’ comments ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election ran counter to efforts by others to cultivate a better public image for the industry. growing digital assets.
His spicy rhetoric on X (formerly known as Twitter) led to his departure from Messari when things apparently got too heated for his colleagues. Selkis finally got what he wanted with Donald Trump’s re-election, but some of his tactics to encourage that change landed him squarely on Santa’s hit list this year.
Jonathan and Tanner Adam
Jonathan and Tanner Adam may not be as well-known, but their alleged crimes are certainly on Santa’s radar, and the SEC’s, too.
The pair allegedly led a cryptocurrency-focused Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 80 investors out of a total of $60 million, according to court documents. Under the scheme, investors were told their money would be put into a lending pool that would fund “flash loans” to complete arbitrage trades identified by a special trading bot.
However, the SEC alleges that the loan pool described to investors never existed. Instead, the couple allegedly used those millions to support their lavish lifestyles, spending nearly half a million dollars on a variety of luxury vehicles alone.
Gary Gensler
Gary Gensler is the much-criticized SEC chairman who led the regulatory agency’s crackdown on digital assets during the Biden administration.
Under Gensler, the SEC has followed a “regulation by law enforcement” model to rein in the messy cryptocurrency industry, leading to an unprecedented number of SEC lawsuits against major digital asset companies like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.US.
In 2023, the SEC initiated a total of 46 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions, a 53% increase from 2022, according to Cornerstone Research. It’s also a record for the agency since 2013. But much of that may be for nothing with Gensler announcing plans to resign in January when Trump takes office. Most supporters of the crypto industry are not sad about his future departure.
Eli Regalado
Pastor Eli Regalado allegedly defrauded faithful parishioners of his Denver-based church out of more than $3 million through the sale of a token called INDXCoin, according to the Colorado Division of Securities. However, the pastor denies being entirely guilty of the scheme. His justification: The Lord was the one who did it.
Whether God whispered in his ear or not, one thing is clear: Regalado was living the high life on his followers’ money. The pastor purchased luxurious residences and other items with his ill-gotten gains from the sale of INDXCoin, according to charges filed by the Colorado Securities Commissioner earlier this year.
Craig Wright
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in the case of Craig Wright and his claims to be the creator of Bitcoin, it is also a crime.
In the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) case against Craig Wright, Wright was found guilty in March of lying about being famed Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. A UK court also ruled that there was “overwhelming” evidence that Wright fabricated documents and lied on the stand during the trial. Wright’s saga unfolded for years, but the result has earned him a place on Santa’s hit list this year.
Sahil Arora
Cryptocurrency influencer and celebrity hunter Sahil Arora has fallen out of favor with investors—and Santa—in 2024.
That’s because the celebrity cryptocurrency promoter allegedly made between $2 million and $30 million by exploiting his connections to various celebrity meme coin projects, according to on-chain analysis by Blockchain researcher ZachXBT and crypto data firm Bubblemaps. .
Arora denied any wrongdoing in an exclusive interview with Decrypt in May
So how exactly did Arora become so rich? Well, it’s not entirely clear, but several celebrities and investors have something to say about it.
In May, Caitlyn Jenner said Arora “scammed” her “big time” by absconding with proceeds from the JENNER meme coin he helped launch.
R&B singer Jason Derulo followed up with his own meme coin and similar accusations against Arora, to which Arora responded to Decrypt that it wasn’t what it seemed. The controversy was “orchestrated” and was all part of the “script,” according to him.
As if that double dose of celebrity drama wasn’t enough, investors also accused Arora of pocketing up to $380,000 from the pre-sale of an Iggy Azalea-themed memecoin project he launched on Pump.fun earlier this year. Shortly after the pre-sale, the project’s investors claimed that they had not received any of the tokens they were promised. Meanwhile, at least some pre-sale wallet funds appeared to have been moved, according to SolScan data.
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