"2.6% daily profit guaranteed"...$150 million crypto Ponzi, global investigation launched

▲ Cryptocurrency fraud, cryptocurrency crime/AI generated image

After the collapse of a $150 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, Tether and major exchanges froze $41.5 million. Simultaneously, a global investigation has been launched to trace the stolen funds and assess the possibility of recovery.

According to crypto media outlet NewsBTC on May 6 (local time), on-chain detective ZachXBT exposed a large-scale Ponzi scheme operated since 2025 by the fake trading platform DSJ Exchange (DSJEX) and fraudulent investment organization BG Wealth Sharing. The scheme reportedly amassed over $150 million from victims before its collapse.

According to ZachXBT, DSJEX and BG Wealth recruited investors by promising daily returns of 1.3-2.6%, referral fees, and tier-based bonuses. They fronted a fake CEO named Stephen Beard and disseminated new recruitment information and false trading signals through Hong Kong messaging app BonChat groups. The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) explained that investors used these trading signals on the DSJ exchange and were led to believe their cryptocurrency investments were profitable.

BG Wealth and DSJ claimed to be authorized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but the DFI could not find any evidence of SEC registration in the documents submitted by the two companies. Thirteen regulatory bodies across five continents, including the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Philippine SEC, and the Washington DFI, had already issued public fraud warnings against the two companies.

U.S. law enforcement agencies seized one of BG Wealth's domains on April 23 as part of a joint operation by Operation Level Up and the Scam Center Strike Force. However, the fraud continued for about another week afterward. Last Saturday, Beard uploaded a video claiming that DSJEX would soon be listed and demanded 12% of account balances as a "tax" under the guise of regulatory procedures. Withdrawals had already been suspended at this point.

After the intervention by U.S. authorities, the fraudulent organization laundered over $92 million in cryptocurrency assets across various chains. ZachXBT stated that they repeatedly changed domains and hot wallets to evade investigation and, from April 27 to May 3, utilized token swaps, Bridgers, Butter Network, USDT0 bridging, USDD wrapping and unwrapping, and transaction consolidation across hundreds of addresses.

ZachXBT tracked millions of dollars in outflow streams through temporal analysis and confirmed Solana (SOL) and Tron (TRX) deposits moving to Binance, followed by matching Tron withdrawals. Subsequently, relevant information was provided to Tether, Binance security team, OKX, and U.S. law enforcement agencies. As a result, Tether froze $38.4 million on May 4, and an additional $3.1 million was frozen across various crypto services and exchanges, bringing the total frozen amount to $41.5 million. ZachXBT believes that the confirmed damage of $150 million is likely significantly lower than the actual figure.

*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. This content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*