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šØāāļø SEC Charges HyperFund in $1.7B Ponzi Scheme
Plus: Google's Ad Policy Might Boost Bitcoin ETF Ads while Quantum Cats Botches Ordinals Launch
āļø GM
Est. read time: 4 minutes
Who doesnāt love seeing a ponzi scheme get what they deserve?
Letās digest:
1. SEC Charges HyperFund as a $1.7 Billion Ponzi Scheme
2. Googleās Policy Update May Boost Advertising for Bitcoin ETFs
3. Quantum Cats NFT Sales Held Up By Technical Difficulties
š MARKETS
NFT Market Flash

Market Flash
š° TODAYāS TOP STORY
SEC Charges HyperFund as $1.7 Billion Ponzi Scheme

HyperFund
The SEC has charged the founders of the HyperFund, Xue Lee and Brenda Chunga for orchestrating a fraudulent operation that amassed over $1.7 billion from global investors.
The scheme, which operated from June 2020 through early 2022, was charged with fraud and offering unregistered securities.
According to the SEC, Lee and Chunga falsely advertised HyperFund āmembership packagesā as a guarantee to high returns from their lucrative investment in mining operations.
However, the SEC alleges that the scheme was, in reality, a pyramid scheme devoid of any legitimate revenue sources.
This misrepresentation led to the scheme's collapse in 2022, resulting in significant losses for investors.
āAs alleged in our complaint, Lee and Chunga attracted investors with the allure of profits from crypto asset mining, but the only thing that HyperFund mined was its investorsā pockets,ā
Chunga has responded to the allegations by pleading guilty to conspiracy charges related to securities fraud and wire fraud.
He has also agreed to settle the SEC charges, with the court set to determine the amount for disgorgement and civil penalties.
The SEC Being the Good Guys
As much as the SEC have seemed like the bad guys over the past year, this is the reason they do what they do.
Possibly the largest barrier to mass use of crypto products is due to itās unregulated nature, which leads to $1.7B scams like HyperFundā¦
Go Deeper: Read the full Press Release from the SEC here
š¦ ETF
Googleās Policy Update May Boost Bitcoin ETF Advertising

Google Ads
Google has updated its advertising policies, potentially opening the door for Bitcoin ETFs to be advertised on its platform.
If youāve been under an ether rock, the SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10 from firms such as BlackRock, Grayscale, and Fidelityā¦
The policy change will permit ads from entities offering Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts targeting the United States.
This aligns with the nature of spot Bitcoin ETFs (investors purchase shares representing a stake in the fund's Bitcoin holdings) fitting Googleās criteria for products involving digital currency trusts.
The platform's extensive reach and high search processing capacity, handling over 100,000 searches per second.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, one of the largest Bitcoin trusts, has transitioned to a spot Bitcoin ETF, aligning with the SECās recent approvals.
Before it was only for accredited investors (people with a $1M net worth or more) but now itās more widely available as a spot ETF, potentially making them a safer option for Googleās ad platform
š Ordinals
Quantum Cats NFT Sales Held Up By Technical Difficulties

Quantum Cats
Taproot Wizards' big debut with their "Quantum Cats" Bitcoin Ordinalss hit a bit of a bump on Monday.
They were set to release around 3,000 digital felines into the wild, each priced at 0.1 BTC (that's $4,300 for the non-math wizards), but tech troubles threw a wrench in the works.
MINT POSTPONED!
š± WL mint will continue tomorrow, Jan 30, at 12pm-2pm ET
š± public mint begins tomorrow, Jan 30, at 3pm ET
š± anyone who made a payment today, WILL receive their Quantum Cat on Jan 31
š± anyone on the whitelist who wasnāt able to mint, will be able to tomorrow!ā¦ twitter.com/i/web/status/1ā¦ā Quantum Cats (@QuantumCatsXYZ)
7:25 PM ā¢ Jan 29, 2024
Aimed to celebrate the Bitcoin improvement proposal known as OP_CAT, they were scheduled to begin with a two-hour whitelist window, but was postponed to today due to server overload.
Despite the technical challenges, the company reported selling 30% of the collection, equivalent to about 90 BTC ($3.9 million).
Had all NFTs been sold, the total revenue could have reached up to 300 BTC ($12.9 million).
This is a rocky start for Taproot Wizards, which secured $7.5 million in seed funding last November to develop Ordinals-focused projects.
Udi Wertheimer, a co-founder of the company, acknowledged the issues during an X spaces, admitting that the experience did not meet expectations.
Non-fungible News
Gaming: Binance Pours Cold Water on NFT Game That Pulled in $115M for Its Mint
NFTs: Billionaire Biohacker Gets Into NFTs with Drip Solana Airdrop
Crypto: Solana Signups Surge to Record Highs
š” INSIGHT
Large Holder of Remilios Gets Liquidated
A Redacted community member pushed the price of Remilios from 0.5 to 0.9 over the last week mostly buying on leverage
They've slowly been getting liquidated over the last two days and the floor is back down to 0.6 with... *checks notes*
320 still underwater
ā Cirrus (@CirrusNFT)
4:48 PM ā¢ Jan 29, 2024
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