In its order dated June 02, 2025, the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission said the named operators of My Big Coin have to pay $25.8 million in fines to the commission.
Release number 9084-25 by the CFTC orders Mark Gillilespie of Michigan and John Roche of California to pay jointly and severally a $19,326,324 civil monetary penalty and $6,442,108 in restitution to defrauded victims in connection with their role in a digital assets fraud scheme.
The order by the CFTC also imposes a permanent injunction against the defendant and bans them from trading in any CFTC-regulated market.
As per the information, from at least January 2014 through June 2017, Gillilespie, My Big Coin Pay Inc., My Big Coin Inc., and Roche, together with Randall Carter, operated a digital asset scheme in which they fraudulently offered the sale of a fully functioning virtual currency, My Big Coin.
A quick brief of ‘My Big Coin’ & ‘My Big Coin Pay’ scam
It is noteworthy that ‘My Big Coin’ & ‘My Big Coin Pay’ were led by Randall, Gillilespie, and Roche, defrauded investors of over $6 million between 2014 to 2017.
My Big Coin Pay was based in Las Vegas and has promoted a fake crypto, MBC ( My Big Coin), falsely claiming it was backed by gold and oil, and has also claimed to have a partnership with MasterCard.
The false information about the scam was widely circulated using social media, which led 28 victims to their website. A few reports slam that the bad actors have used the looted funds for their luxury and to maintain a lifestyle.
The identified masterminds behind this were charged in 2018 and were later convicted of wire fraud and money laundering.
Is the crypto Ponzi scam growing in 2025?
According to the data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a significant surge has been seen in crypto scam losses, which also includes Ponzi schemes.
In 2025, crypto scam losses reached $472 million in Q1, 2025, up from $336 million in the same period in 2024, suggesting a clear growing trend. Crypto investment scams and Ponzi schemes accounted for 6,174 cases with $279 million in losses in Q1, 2025.
An article by the National Law Review dated April 04, 2025, notes that the number of Ponzi scams has surged with time.
The FTC and SEC data, combined with the regulatory statement painting a picture of rising issues, suggest bad actors are managing to loot easily compared to the pace of action from regulators.
Crypto market price updates
Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market cap was $3.25 trillion, with a 3.45% and the trading volume was $172.7 billion, reflecting a surge of 28.80%.
After a loss of 2.45%, Bitcoin has now reached $104,720, and its market capitalization has registered a loss of 2.36%, reaching $2.08 trillion. Ethereum is currently trading at $2,520 with a loss of 7.89%.
According to the data from CoinMarketCap, the intraday gainers list has been topped by AB, followed by UNUS SED LEO, PAX Gold, and Tether Gold, among others.
On the other hand, the losers are SPX6900, which lost 19.36% of its price, followed by Fartcoin, Celestia, Dogwifhat, Optimism, Bonk, Pepe, Floki, and Lido DAO.
