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Texas Financial Regulators Crack Down on 15 Alleged Crypto Scams
Many of the alleged crypto scams had a common tactic: savvy social media posts to draw victims in.
By Danny Nelson
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:33 a.m. Published Nov 19, 2020, 10:18 p.m.
Texas regulators are going after a host of crypto firms they allege to be investment scams, 10 of which they say are are controlled by a single Texas man.
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The Texas State Securities Board on Thursday ordered 15 firms to cease and desist operations with a series of emergency orders against crypto, forex and binary options hubs that purport to be based in Texas.
Ten firms are named in the first order: Proactive Expert Trading, Reliable Miners, BitcoinFX Options, Sure Trade Earnings, CryptoTradeFXWay, Proactive ExpertTrade, ReliableFX Internal Trade, MaxFX Internal Trade, AntPoolTop Mining and ExpertTrades247. Regulators say one man, James Blundell, pumped all 10 on social media.
Three are named in the second: Binary Trade Forex, FX Trades and IQTrade. Regulators say the trio are not registered to sell securities in Texas. They're peddling highly lucrative, low risk investing options – at least according to the customer testimonials, which TSSB alleges are fake.
One firm, a crypto binary option and forex investment platform called GenuisPlanFxPro, is named in the third. Regulators say GenuisPlanFxPro falsely claims to hold a handful of international financial licenses.
TSSB officials alleged a common thread across all 15 firms is their savvy use of social media to draw investors in and drain them dry.
“Bad actors know how to use social media and internet websites to create the pretense of legitimate operations. They can also use this technology to quickly reach large numbers of potential victims,” said Enforcement Director Joe Rotunda in a statement.
“Their websites often go dark, social media often goes dormant and fraudsters often disappear. In many cases, the money is gone.”
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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Japan’s Higher Rates Puts Bitcoin in the Crosshairs of a Yen Carry Unwind
A stronger yen typically coincides with de-risking across macro portfolios, and that dynamic could tighten liquidity conditions that recently helped bitcoin rebound from November’s lows.
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- The Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates to 0.75% at its December meeting, the highest since 1995, affecting global markets including cryptocurrencies.
- A stronger yen could lead to de-risking in macro portfolios, impacting liquidity conditions that have supported bitcoin's recent recovery.
- Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated a high probability of a rate hike, with officials prepared for further tightening if their economic outlook supports it.
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