$150M Crypto Ponzi Crumbles: $41.5M Frozen In DSJ Exchange Collapse

The scam involved a fake CEO named Stephen Beard, a self-proclaimed professor who represented the platform to the public. According to the Tuesday thread, DSJEX and BG Wealth advertised daily returns of 1.3–2.6, with referral commissions and rank-based bonuses. In addition, Beard pushed recruitment and fake trading signals through a group on Hong Kong messaging app BonChat. The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) recently explained that investors used these trading signals on the DSJ exchange and were led to believe that the crypto investments were generating returns. BG Wealth and DSJ claimed to be licensed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but the DFI found that neither of the forms filed by these companies indicated that they were registered with the SEC. Thirteen regulators across five continents had issued public fraud warnings about the firms, including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Philippines’ SEC, and Washington’s DFI. On April 23, US law enforcement seized one of BG Wealth’s domains as part of a joint operation conducted by Operation Level Up and the Scam Center Strike Force. However, the scam continued to operate for roughly another week. Last Saturday, Beard posted a video affirming that DSJEX would soon go public and demanded a 12 “tax” on account balances as a prerequisite for the regulatory process. But the scammers had already disabled withdrawals by this point. Tether, Exchanges Freeze 41.5M After the US authorities’ involvement, the malicious actors laundered over 92 million in crypto assets across chains. ZachXBT noted that the scammers regularly rotated between domains and hot wallets to evade law enforcement. Between April 27 and May 3, the crypto funds were laundered through token swaps, bridging via Bridgers, Butter Network, and USDT0, wrapping and unwrapping USDD, and consolidation of transactions across hundreds of addresses. The crypto sleuth traced the millions in outflows through a timing analysis, located Solana/Tron deposits to Binance, and found matching Tron withdrawals. Then, he provided details to the relevant parties, including Tether, the Binance security team, OKX, and US law enforcement. As a result, Tether froze 38.4 million on May 4, while another 3.1 million was frozen at various crypto services and exchanges, bringing the total to 41.5 million. Related Reading: Why is Crypto Up Today? Bitcoin Price Faces ‘Real Test’ At This Key Level Despite the significant recovery, the on-chain detective noted that the scam’s 150 million assessment is “likely significantly higher since the scheme has been operating since 2025, with thousands of victim exchange withdrawals identified.” Ultimately, he advised victims of DSJEX and BG Wealth’s scheme to file a police report in their jurisdiction to aid global investigations and potential restitution from laundered proceeds. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com