Crypto

US Pastor Accused Of $3.2 Million Crypto Scam Says God Told Him To Do It

Published

2 years ago

January 24, 2024

US Pastor Accused Of .2 Million Crypto Scam Says God Told Him To Do It

The Regalados used the funds to support their “lavish lifestyle,” the complaint said.

An online pastor in the United States has been charged with civil fraud for selling a cryptocurrency that regulators described as “practically worthless”. According to CBS News, Colorado’s securities commissioner filed a legal complaint against Eligio Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn Regalado last week. The complaint accuses the couple of raising $3.2 million by targeting the state’s Christian community with the cryptocurrency, marketed as INDXcoin. They allegedly sold the “practically worthless” tokens from June 2022 to April 2023 through a cryptocurrency exchange they created called Kingdom Wealth Exchange, the complaint said.

The sales supported the couple’s “lavish lifestyle,” Colorado Securities Commissioner (CSC) Tung Chan said in a statement, as per the outlet. “Mr Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his own Christian community and that he peddled outlandish promises of wealth to them when he sold them essentially worthless cryptocurrencies,” Mr Chan added.

Cryptocurrency is usually able to be converted into cash or other currencies through a digital platform or trading exchange. However, investigators alleged that INDXcoin was actually “illiquid and practically useless”. They also accused the couple of violating Colorado’s anti-fraud, licensing and registration laws.

On Friday, in a video message, the pastor acknowledged that the allegations that he made $1.3 million from investors “are true”. “We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit,” Mr Regalado said, as per the Washington Post. He added that he had also been divinely instructed to abandon his former business to take over INDXcoin.

“I’m like, well, where’s this liquidity going to come from,’ and the Lord says, ‘Trust Me,” the pastor said. “We were just always under the impression that God was going to provide that the source was never-ending,” he added.

An online pastor was charged in CO for a $1.3 million crypto scam. He’s released a 9-minute-long video explaining that the Lord told him to sell a cryptocurrency with no clear exit”, and spend some of the proceeds on “a home remodel the Lord told us to do”.
Here’s a supercut. pic.twitter.com/scKpF8nyrT
— Molly White (@molly0xFFF) January 21, 2024

Mr Regalado also said that he will go to the court to address the allegations against him and his wife. “Either I misheard God, and every one of you who prayed and came in – you as well. Or two, God is still not done with this project,” he said.

Also Read | US Man, 31, Forced To Get Nose Removed After Developing Flu-Like Symptoms

According to CSC, the Regalados had no prior experience operating a cryptocurrency exchange or creating a virtual token before minting INDX two years ago. But the pastor said he was inspired to sell INDXcoin because “God is in the business of doing new things and breaking seals. And he did tell us to do this”.

Investors who purchased INDXcoin were subsequently unable to convert the cryptocurrency into cash because of technical failings, Mr Regalado said. “We launched an exchange. The exchange technology failed. Things went downhill,” the pastor said. “I know this looks terrible,” he added.

Meanwhile, according to CSC, almost anyone can create a cryptocurrency token. “New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open source code. We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical,” Mr Chan said.

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Crypto

Arthur Hayes Bets $2.2 Million on SYN, Backing Hypercall to Challenge Deribit

Published

3 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Press Room

Arthur Hayes Bets .2 Million on SYN, Backing Hypercall to Challenge Deribit

Key Takeaways

A $2.2 Million Vote of Confidence

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder and former chief executive of derivatives exchange BitMEX, has placed a fresh bet on the Hyperliquid ecosystem, buying roughly $2.2 million of synapse (SYN) and publicly endorsing the project behind an onchain options exchange.

The purchase, made on June 29 through over-the-counter trading firm Flowdesk, totaled about 6.16 million SYN tokens. Hayes, not one to keep quiet, subsequently took to X and commented:

“I still want to be long the Hyperliquid ecosystem but I need some asymmetry. It’s time for an options dex to properly take on Deribit. Hypercall, owned by $SYN, is that challenger. Let’s see if they can cook.”

Hypercall is an onchain options trading protocol built on Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM, the smart-contract layer of the fast-growing Hyperliquid network. The platform lets users trade options, with positions tradeable around the clock and risk capped at the premium a trader pays. Moreover, it has been developed by the team behind Synapse, whose SYN token is the asset Hayes bought.

A Run-Up in SYN

The endorsement landed on a token that was already on a tear as SYN surged more than tenfold in June, and Hayes’s purchase and public backing added fuel, with Synapse’s market capitalization climbing toward the $55 million to $60 million range and daily trading volume running above $95 million in the wake of his comments.

SYN token’s 10x surge over the past month, per Coingecko

Hayes commands an unusually large following among crypto traders, both for his market essays and his willingness to put capital behind his theses. Not only that, he has become one of the most closely watched voices in the Hyperliquid orbit, repeatedly championing the network’s HYPE token, at one point setting a $150 price target, though his wallet activity has not always matched his rhetoric.

Bitcoin.com News reported recently that a wallet linked to Hayes sold HYPE near $54 before buying back in at a higher price, a sequence that drew attention to the gap between his public calls and his trades.

Targeting Deribit’s Turf

Deribit has been the dominant venue for crypto options, a corner of the market long underserved by decentralized platforms because options are harder to build onchain than simple spot or perpetual-futures trading. By putting forth Hypercall as a credible challenger, Hayes is betting that Hyperliquid’s infrastructure can finally support a decentralized options market at scale and that SYN is the way to gain exposure to that bet.

That said, an endorsement and a price spike are not the same as trading volume, open interest, and users, the metrics that ultimately decide whether an options DEX can pressure an incumbent like Deribit. For the time being, Hayes and his $2.2 million bet have put a considerable megaphone behind the idea and the next thing to look out for is whether Hypercall can convert the hype and capital into durable trading activity before the attention inadvertently fades.

Crypto

Elizabeth Warren Says US Enemies Exploiting Crypto To ‘Move Billions’ After Iran Reportedly Uses CoinEx T

Published

13 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Press Room

Elizabeth Warren Says US Enemies Exploiting Crypto To ‘Move Billions’ After Iran Reportedly Uses CoinEx T

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) expressed concerns on Sunday over the potential misuse of cryptocurrencies by America’s adversaries.

Warren Says Crypto Legislation Will Make The Problem Worse

Warren cited a Wall Street Journal report on X detailing how Iran-affiliated entities moved billions in transactions through CoinEx, a cryptocurrency exchange that withdrew from the U.S. after a 2023 lawsuit.

“More evidence that our adversaries exploit crypto to move billions,” the senior lawmaker said.

Warren argued that the cryptocurrency legislation, i.e., the Clarity Act, would make the problem “worse” by creating new loopholes and urged Congress to strengthen the bill before passage.