Santa's Crypto Naughty Checklist 2024 – Decrypt

Whereas the crypto market’s newest bull run has put additional money in business gamers’ pockets, Ol’ Saint Nick is getting ready to place coal in a few of their stockings.  

From controversial founders to outright scammers, a number of key figures in crypto landed themselves on Santa’s “Naughty Checklist” in 2024. 

Listed below are Decrypt’s picks for the seven naughtiest in crypto this yr:

Hawk Tuah Woman (Hailey Welch)

Viral web star Hailey Welch, aka the “Hawk Tuah” Woman was catapulted into shitcoin superstardom earlier this month when she introduced the launch of her HAWK meme coin. 

However Welch’s crypto debut went sideways shortly after the HAWK launch, with crypto traders declaring that the token sale had all the most important marks of an insider rip-off. 

Hawk-eyed merchants identified that Welch’s group owned between 80-90% of HAWK’s provide on launch day, doubtlessly permitting them to govern the worth of the token. 

Welch’s HAWK token had a $490 million market cap shortly after it debuted within the first week of December. Nevertheless, its value rapidly plummeted to lower than 5% of its preliminary worth inside a number of hours of its launch.

A legislation agency has sued her enterprise companions over the collapse, and she or he emerged from a two-week social media blackout quickly thereafter—to say she’s working with the legal professionals, and declare she wasn’t answerable for the mess.

Ryan Selkis 

Messari founder Ryan Selkis courted controversy and stirred up drama inside the crypto group in 2024. 

From excoriating his political adversaries to evoking one other U.S. civil warfare, Selkis’ commentary main as much as the U.S. 2024 presidential election flew within the face of others’ efforts to domesticate a greater public picture for the maturing digital belongings business.

His spicy rhetoric on X (previously often known as Twitter) led to his departure from Messari when issues apparently received too sizzling for his colleagues. Selkis in the end received what he needed with Donald Trump’s reelection, however a few of his ways in encouraging that shift landed him squarely on Santa’s naughty listing this yr.

Jonathan and Tanner Adam

Jonathan and Tanner Adam is probably not family names, however their alleged crimes are definitely on Santa’s radar—and the SEC’s, too.

The pair allegedly led a crypto-focused Ponzi scheme that bilked greater than 80 traders out of a complete of $60 million, in line with court docket filings. Below the scheme, traders have been instructed their cash can be put right into a lending pool that might fund “flash loans” to finish arbitrage trades that have been recognized by a particular buying and selling bot. 

Nevertheless, the SEC alleges that the lending pool as described to traders by no means existed. Fairly, the duo allegedly used these tens of millions to help their lavish life, spending practically half 1,000,000 {dollars} alone on a wide range of luxurious autos.

Gary Gensler 

Gary Gensler is the much-maligned SEC chairman who led the regulatory company’s cost towards digital belongings throughout the Biden administration. 

Below Gensler, the SEC has adopted a “regulation-by-enforcement” mannequin for reining within the unwieldy crypto business, resulting in an unprecedented variety of SEC lawsuits towards main digital belongings firms comparable to Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.US.

In 2023, the SEC introduced a complete of 46 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions, a 53% improve from 2022, in accordance to Cornerstone Analysis. That is additionally a file excessive for the company since 2013. However a lot of which may be for naught with Gensler saying plans to resign in January as Trump takes workplace. Most crypto business supporters aren’t unhappy to see him go.

Eli Regalado

Pastor Eli Regalado allegedly scammed religious parishioners of his Denver-based church out of greater than $3 million by way of the sale of a token known as INDXCoin, in line with the Colorado Division of Securities. Nevertheless, the pastor denies being utterly at fault for the scheme. His rationale: The Lord made him do it.

Whether or not God whispered in his ear or not, one factor is evident: Regalado was residing the excessive life on his followers’ cash. The pastor purchased luxurious digs and different gadgets along with his ill-gotten positive factors from INDXCoin’s sale, in line with fees from the Colorado Securities Commissioner filed earlier this yr.

Craig Wright

They are saying imitation is the sincerest type of flattery, however within the case of Craig Wright and his claims to be the creator of Bitcoin, it is also a criminal offense. 

Within the case of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) versus Craig Wright, Wright was discovered responsible in March of mendacity about being storied Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. A U.Ok. court docket additionally dominated that there was “overwhelming” proof that Wright fabricated paperwork and lied on the stand throughout the trial. The Wright saga performed out for years, however the outcome has earned him a spot on Santa’s naughty listing this yr.

Sahil Arora

Crypto influencer and movie star wrangler Sahil Arora has fallen out of traders’—and Santa’s—good graces in 2024.

That is as a result of the crypto movie star promoter allegedly made between $2 million and $30 million by exploiting his connections to numerous movie star meme coin initiatives, in line with on-chain analyses by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT and crypto knowledge agency Bubblemaps.  

(Arora denied any wrongdoing in an unique interview with Decrypt in Could.)

So, how precisely did Arora get so wealthy? Effectively, it isn’t precisely clear, however a number of celebrities and traders have one thing to say on the matter.  

In Could, Caitlyn Jenner stated Arora “scammed” her “massive time” by operating away with the proceeds of the JENNER meme coin he helped launch. 

R&B singer Jason Derulo adopted up along with his personal meme coin and related allegations towards Arora, which Arora later instructed Decrypt wasn’t what it appeared. The controversy was “orchestrated” and all “a part of the script,” he stated.

As if that double dose of movie star drama weren’t sufficient, traders additionally accused Arora of raking in as much as $380,000 from the presale of an Iggy Azalea-themed meme coin undertaking that he launched on Pump.enjoyable earlier this yr. Shortly after the presale, traders within the undertaking alleged they hadn’t obtained any of the tokens they have been promised. In the meantime, not less than some funds from the presale pockets appeared to have been moved, SolScan knowledge confirmed.