While the crypto market’s latest bull run has put extra cash in industry players’ pockets, Ol’ Saint Nick is preparing to put coal in some of their stockings.
From controversial founders to outright scammers, several key figures in crypto landed themselves on Santa’s “Naughty List” in 2024.
Here are Decrypt’s picks for the seven naughtiest in crypto this year:
Hawk Tuah Girl (Hailey Welch)
Viral internet star Hailey Welch, aka the “Hawk Tuah” Girl was catapulted into shitcoin superstardom earlier this month when she announced the launch of her HAWK meme coin.
But Welch’s crypto debut went sideways shortly after the HAWK launch, with crypto investors pointing out that the token sale had all the major marks of an insider scam.
Hawk-eyed traders pointed out that Welch’s team owned between 80-90% of HAWK’s supply on launch day, potentially allowing them to manipulate the price of the token.
Welch’s HAWK token had a $490 million market cap shortly after it debuted in the first week of December. However, its price quickly plummeted to less than 5% of its initial value within a few hours of its launch.
A law firm has sued her business partners over the collapse, and she emerged from a two-week social media blackout soon thereafter—to say she’s working with the lawyers, and claim she wasn’t responsible for the mess.
Ryan Selkis
Messari founder Ryan Selkis courted controversy and stirred up drama within the crypto community in 2024.
From excoriating his political adversaries to evoking another U.S. civil war, Selkis’ commentary leading up to the U.S. 2024 presidential election flew in the face of others’ efforts to cultivate a better public image for the maturing digital assets industry.
His spicy rhetoric on X (formerly known as Twitter) led to his departure from Messari when things apparently got too hot for his colleagues. Selkis ultimately got what he wanted with Donald Trump’s reelection, but some of his tactics in encouraging that shift landed him squarely on Santa’s naughty list this year.
Jonathan and Tanner Adam
Jonathan and Tanner Adam may not be household names, but their alleged crimes are certainly on Santa’s radar—and the SEC’s, too.
The pair allegedly led a crypto-focused Ponzi scheme that bilked more than 80 investors out of a total of $60 million, according to court filings. Under the scheme, investors were told their money would be put into a lending pool that would fund “flash loans” to complete arbitrage trades that were identified by a special trading bot.
However, the SEC alleges that the lending pool as described to investors never existed. Rather, the duo allegedly used those millions to support their lavish lifestyles, spending nearly half a million dollars alone on a variety of luxury vehicles.
Gary Gensler
Gary Gensler is the much-maligned SEC chairman who led the regulatory agency’s charge against digital assets during the Biden administration.
Under Gensler, the SEC has followed a “regulation-by-enforcement” model for reining in the unwieldy crypto industry, leading to an unprecedented number of SEC lawsuits against major digital assets companies such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.US.
In 2023, the SEC brought a total of 46 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions, a 53% increase from 2022, according to Cornerstone Research. That’s also a record high for the agency since 2013. But much of that may be for naught with Gensler announcing plans to resign in January as Trump takes office. Most crypto industry supporters aren’t sad to see him go.
Eli Regalado
Pastor Eli Regalado allegedly scammed devout parishioners of his Denver-based church out of more than $3 million through the sale of a token called INDXCoin, according to the Colorado Division of Securities. However, the pastor denies being completely at fault for the scheme. His rationale: The Lord made him do it.
Whether God whispered in his ear or not, one thing is clear: Regalado was living the high life on his followers’ money. The pastor bought luxury digs and other items with his ill-gotten gains from INDXCoin’s sale, according to charges from the Colorado Securities Commissioner filed earlier this year.
Craig Wright
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in the case of Craig Wright and his claims to be the creator of Bitcoin, it’s also a crime.
In the case of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) versus Craig Wright, Wright was found guilty in March of lying about being storied Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. A U.K. court also ruled that there was “overwhelming” evidence that Wright fabricated documents and lied on the stand during the trial. The Wright saga played out for years, but the result has earned him a spot on Santa’s naughty list this year.
Sahil Arora
Crypto influencer and celebrity wrangler Sahil Arora has fallen out of investors’—and Santa’s—good graces in 2024.
That’s because the crypto celebrity promoter allegedly made between $2 million and $30 million by exploiting his connections to various celebrity meme coin projects, according to on-chain analyses by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT and crypto data firm Bubblemaps.
(Arora denied any wrongdoing in an exclusive interview with Decrypt in May.)
So, how exactly did Arora get so rich? Well, it’s not exactly clear, but several celebrities and investors have something to say on the matter.
In May, Caitlyn Jenner said Arora “scammed” her “big time” by running away with the proceeds of the JENNER meme coin he helped launch.
R&B singer Jason Derulo followed up with his own meme coin and similar allegations against Arora, which Arora later told Decrypt wasn’t what it seemed. The controversy was “orchestrated” and all “part of the script,” he said.
As if that double dose of celebrity drama weren’t enough, investors also accused Arora of raking in up to $380,000 from the presale of an Iggy Azalea-themed meme coin project that he launched on Pump.fun earlier this year. Shortly after the presale, investors in the project alleged they hadn’t received any of the tokens they were promised. Meanwhile, at least some funds from the presale wallet appeared to have been moved, SolScan data showed.
