scheme

According to The Street, Goliath Ventures, a cryptocurrency company based in Florida, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in the Southern District of Florida.The company is alleged to be linked to a $328 million Ponzi scheme, with over 2,000 victim investors, including Gregory Wilson, who lost approximately $8.74 million, and John Euliano, who lost about $1.28 million. Additionally, plaintiffs have filed a class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase early next month, accusing it of turning a blind eye to suspicious transactions involving Goliath Ventures.Previously, Goliath Ventures' former CEO Christopher Alexander Delgado was arrested for allegedly being involved in the $328 million Ponzi scheme and faces charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Delgado lured victims under the guise of investing in cryptocurrency liquidity pools and promising monthly returns, but the funds were used to pay returns to earlier investors, purchase luxury homes, and finance extravagant activities.

Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York ruled to deny the motion to dismiss filed by the defendants in the TradeAI/Stakx case, allowing the case to proceed.The case was brought by the cryptocurrency law firm Burwick Law, accusing multiple defendants of operating a fraudulent scheme resembling a Ponzi scheme using NFTs and cryptocurrency investment pools, promising high returns to investors. The estimated losses have exceeded $20 million, with a total scale of approximately $440 million involved. The court rejected all defense arguments from the defendants regarding jurisdiction, venue, and service of process.Regarding defendant Cyrus Abraham's refusal to respond to the lawsuit on the grounds of technical defects in the service of process, the judge clearly stated that litigation is not a game of hide and seek, requiring Abraham to disclose his current residential address to the plaintiff's law firm by March 31, or he would face a default judgment and further sanctions. The court also officially extended the deadline for service to April 22 and has allowed alternative methods of serving legal documents through Ethereum wallets, email, and social media.

In response to former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's claim that Bitcoin is a huge Ponzi scheme, Eric Trump, the son of Trump, commented that he totally disagrees with this view.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted on the X platform expressing his long-standing suspicion that Bitcoin is a "massive Ponzi scheme," and stated that recent cases of investment losses he has heard about have made him more concerned that this judgment may be correct.In response, Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of Bitcoin treasury company Strategy, disagreed with this viewpoint. He pointed out that Ponzi schemes typically require a centralized operator to promise returns and pay early investors with the funds from later investors, whereas Bitcoin has no issuer or promoter, and there are no guaranteed returns; it is merely an open decentralized currency network driven by code and market demand.

On Tuesday, investors filed a class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California federal court, accusing JPMorgan of failing to stop suspicious transactions in the $328 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme operated by the now-defunct Goliath Ventures, and allowing the company to use its banking infrastructure to collect investor funds.The complaint states that JPMorgan provided exclusive banking services to Goliath from January 2023 to May or June 2025, during which Goliath raised at least $328 million from over 2,000 investors. Approximately $253 million was deposited into JPMorgan's 0305 account, and about $123 million was transferred to Goliath's wallet held on Coinbase.Previously, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida announced the arrest of Goliath CEO Christopher Delgado on February 24, who faces up to 30 years in federal prison. Prosecutors allege that Goliath (formerly known as Gen-Z Venture Firm) operated the scheme from January 2023 to January 2026. Another criminal complaint shows that Goliath also held a business account at Bank of America, with Delgado as a co-signer on that account.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of India announced the arrest of Ayush Varshney, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Darwin Labs, at Mumbai Airport, for allegedly being involved in the notorious GainBitcoin Ponzi scheme. It is reported that Varshney was attempting to leave India at the time.Investigations reveal that the scheme was operated by Variabletech Pte. Ltd., attracting investors by promising high returns on cryptocurrency investments. Law enforcement agencies accuse Darwin Labs of developing and deploying key technological infrastructure for the scheme, including the MCAP cryptocurrency token and ERC-20 smart contracts. Additionally, Darwin provided technical support for the GBMiners.com Bitcoin mining platform, BitCoin Payment Gateway, CoinE Bank Bitcoin wallet, and the GainBitcoin investment website, which were allegedly used to lure and defraud investors. Media reports indicate that the scheme began in 2015 and operated across several states in India. It is estimated that the case involves approximately ₹1,900 million (around $2.1 million) in funds, as well as 29,000 bitcoins. At current prices, these bitcoins are valued at over $2 billion.

According to Bloomberg, this week, the lawyer of Chen Zhi, who is accused of being the head of a large-scale "pig butchering" scam gang, filed a motion in a New York federal court to dismiss the U.S. government's seizure of a batch of Bitcoin related to him. The lawyer argued that the prosecution's allegations regarding Chen Zhi's oversight of the scam operation lack specific evidence and are merely a vague description of the overall situation in Cambodia. They also questioned the timeline of the cryptocurrency seizure, stating that these Bitcoins could not possibly be the proceeds of fraud or money laundering.The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of 127,271 Bitcoins controlled by Chen Zhi last October, which were valued at approximately $15 billion at the time. Chen Zhi had his nationality revoked by Cambodia in January this year and was extradited to China. Following sanctions from the U.S. and the U.K., over $1 billion in assets have been frozen or seized in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. Human rights organizations pointed out that after the closure of the scam operation, thousands of trafficked workers have flowed out from places like Sihanoukville, facing the risk of being sold again.

According to DL News, the Central Bank of Russia has warned that financial pyramid scheme organizers in the country have largely turned to using cryptocurrencies. In 2025, Russian citizens sent funds to cryptocurrency wallets held by fraudsters, involving over 4,600 wallet addresses.The central bank discovered 7,087 financial pyramid schemes, fake brokers, and other fraudulent schemes last year, with 80% operating online, most of which used cryptocurrencies and money mules to transfer funds. In 2025, 84% of fraudsters used cryptocurrencies to raise funds, up from 77% in 2024. The Central Bank of Russia has ordered the blocking of 21,500 related web pages and social media posts.The central bank pointed out that fraudsters choose cryptocurrencies to maintain anonymity and evade punishment, and it has pledged to strengthen monitoring and increase efforts to combat cryptocurrency fraud.

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida stated that Christopher Alexander Delgado, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency investment firm Goliath Ventures, was arrested for allegedly operating a $328 million "Ponzi scheme" and faces charges of wire fraud and money laundering, which could result in a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.The indictment shows that Delgado lured victims under the guise of investing in a cryptocurrency liquidity pool and promising monthly returns, but the funds were used to pay returns to earlier investors, purchase luxury homes, and finance extravagant activities. The monthly returns received by investors actually came from the funds of later investors. Victims confirmed by law enforcement will receive notice of their rights.

The U.S. Department of Justice officially released a typical case, sentencing Ramil Ventura Palafox, CEO of Praetorian Group International, to 20 years in prison for a $200 million Bitcoin Ponzi scheme, having been convicted of wire fraud and money laundering for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded over 90,000 investors worldwide.The 61-year-old Ramil Ventura Palafox holds dual citizenship in the United States and the Philippines, operating Praetorian Group International (PGI) as its chairman and CEO. Palafox falsely claimed that PGI was engaged in Bitcoin trading and promised daily returns of 0.5% to 3%. However, the scale of PGI's Bitcoin trading was insufficient to meet the promised returns, constituting a Ponzi scheme.From December 2019 to October 2021, at least 90,000 investors worldwide invested over $201 million in PGI, including at least $30.295289 million in fiat currency and at least 8,198 Bitcoins valued at $171.498528 million. Due to Palafox's actions, investors suffered total losses of at least $62.692007 million.

Several European tokenization and market infrastructure companies have jointly written to EU lawmakers, urging for a prompt revision of the EU's DLT Pilot Regime. Securitize, 21X, Boerse Stuttgart Group, and others pointed out that the current asset scope, issuance size limits, and six-year license restrictions have hindered the expansion of regulated on-chain markets.Relevant institutions believe that if adjustments are delayed, global liquidity may permanently shift in favor of the U.S. due to advancements in tokenized securities and near-real-time settlement. The proposal is not about relaxing regulations, but rather about technically "quickly revising" to expand the scope of eligible assets, raise limits, and remove time restrictions to maintain the competitiveness of European capital markets.

The police remind that as the year-end approaches, a new type of scam involving "offline cash withdrawal + online fraud" has emerged during the peak period of gold consumption. After the victims purchase gold at a jewelry store and have it mailed to a designated location, the scammers will send disguised "runners" to collect the package from the courier. Multiple "runners" relay the package, with the last one taking the gold to a recycling shop to sell it and then delivering the cash to a location specified by the scammers.Some scammers will also instruct the "runners" to find currency dealers to exchange the gold for virtual currency, which is then deposited into a designated account. This virtual currency can be circulated globally using blockchain technology. Once successful, the scammers achieve their goal of stealing gold and laundering money.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently proposed a reform plan for creator tokens, arguing that the current issue lies not in incentivizing content creation, but in filtering high-quality content. He suggested that a curatorial DAO should determine which creators are important, with tokens primarily serving as predictive tools, allowing people to bet on which creators the DAO will choose, ultimately deciding who rises or falls not by speculators, but by high-value content creators.Experts have differing opinions on this view. Oxytocin, head of the Umia ecosystem, pointed out that the plan introduces a certain degree of welfare creation through prediction markets, but still lacks an appropriate off-chain execution mechanism to ensure creators maintain consistency over the long term. Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of RedStone, believes that prediction markets not only create speculation but also facilitate informed discovery, encouraging people to seek quality rather than chase attention metrics. Superset CEO Neil Staunton remains skeptical, questioning whether DAOs can serve as arbiters of creative quality and whether creative works should be tokenized.

According to market news, a 45-year-old Chinese man, Jingliang Su, has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a U.S. federal court for his involvement in a cryptocurrency money laundering case involving $37 million, and has been ordered to pay over $26 million in restitution.According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Su is a member of a global criminal network. This network contacted U.S. victims through text messages, phone calls, and online dating, using fake websites that impersonated legitimate cryptocurrency trading platforms to lure them into fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. The victims' funds were then laundered through U.S. shell companies, digital asset wallets, and international bank accounts. Prosecutors stated that over $36.9 million was ultimately transferred to an account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas and converted to USDT, which was then transferred by co-conspirators in Cambodia to the heads of scam centers in the region. The government has confirmed 174 U.S. victims. Including Su, a total of 8 individuals involved have pleaded guilty.

Ethereum Foundation Research Co-Director Alex Stokes tweeted that the Ethereum Blob Pressure Optimization proposal BPO2 upgrade has officially taken effect on the mainnet. According to real-time on-chain data, the target value for Blobs has been increased to 14 per block, and the maximum capacity has been raised to 21.

According to Specter monitoring, a wallet transferred 7 million dollars from multiple wallets on the TRON chain to Ethereum via cross-chain.The source of the funds indicates that this money is suspected to originate from a cryptocurrency "pig butchering" investment scam. This conclusion is drawn based on the involved blockchains and the services used. Of this, 3.1 million dollars has been deposited into Tornado Cash.

According to Cryptopolitan, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) and the St. Petersburg Exchange (SPB) have expressed support for the new cryptocurrency regulatory framework released by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and have confirmed that they will launch cryptocurrency trading services after the relevant regulations come into effect next year.The new framework plans to allow both retail and qualified investors to participate, but retail investors will have an annual investment limit of 300,000 rubles, while qualified investors will have no limit (excluding privacy coins).Reports indicate that the Central Bank of Russia has gradually softened its stance on cryptocurrencies over the past year.

The former co-founder of Scalar Capital, Linda Xie, who has joined the Farcaster team, announced on the X platform that the token issuance platform Clanker is currently exploring the next generation of token pre-sale solutions, Clanker Auctions. This pre-sale solution is expected to be designed based on the Uniswap CCA auction protocol and will add contracts related to liquidity, vesting, and more.It is reported that earlier this month, Clanker platform's first new token offering was targeted, and the community expressed that this pre-sale was a "disaster," as the pre-sale contract had an old version hard cap of only 20 ETH, with a certain whale acquiring 16 ETH (80%) of the share. Additionally, the lack of restrictions on the participation limit for individual wallets was also a major reason for the oligopoly in the pre-sale shares.

According to Decrypt, IcomTech senior salesman Magdaleno Mendoza was sentenced to 71 months in prison by a U.S. federal court for operating a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme targeting Hispanic investors.The scheme masqueraded as cryptocurrency mining and trading, promising fixed returns, but was actually a typical multi-level marketing model. The court also ordered Mendoza to pay nearly $790,000 in restitution and forfeited $1.5 million in assets. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, IcomTech was established in mid-2018 and collapsed by the end of 2019, resulting in millions of dollars in losses for investors. Mendoza had promoted at least two other crypto scams and was involved in three similar schemes after the collapse of IcomTech.