Web3 is Going Just Great

The regulator also demanded Binance return all crypto assets to customers, or transfer them to a company authorized in Belgium. They also noted that "The Crown Prosecutor of Brussels has been informed of the acts that are liable to constitute a criminal offence."

The project was real, and they had in fact brought on Bryan as an advisor and investor. Bryan later stated in a YouTube video that he had "[taken] the majority of my Bitcoin and rolled it into this technology". However, the firm scrapped its plans for an initial coin offering in 2019. Despite this, Bryan continued pitching the ICO to friends and family with the promise of big returns. One investor, a college student, he reeled in after matching with her on the dating app Bumble. Various sources told The Hollywood Reporter they'd lost between $5,000 and $25,000, for a total of almost $50,000.

In October 2020, Producers Market cut ties with Bryan. This coincided with Bryan being arrested for felony strangulation and other charges in regards to a drunken assault on a girlfriend, which he later pled down to misdemeanor menacing and fourth-degree assault.

Now, the cease and desist, filed June 21, has become public. It alleges that "the overall financial condition of [Prime Trust] has considerably deteriorated to a critically deficient level" and that "On or about June 21, 2023, Respondent was unable to honor customer withdrawals due to a shortfall of customer funds". The NFID alleged that Prime Trust "has materially and willfully breached its fiduciary duties to its customers by failing to safeguard assets under its custody and is unable to meet all customer disbursement requests."

Prime Trust had been a partner of the TrueUSD stablecoin, which halted minting on June 10 for undisclosed reasons.

As it turned out, Elena had actually directly copied the pixel art from various sources. When accused of copying it, she published a screen capture video claiming to show that she had created the artwork "pixel by pixel", but people were quickly able to find the true sources of the artwork.

Eventually, she came as close to an admission as she is apparently going to get in an announcement that she would be pausing the sale: "I have heard your concerns about the art and I will be working to fix the file quality and any images that might be seen as 'copied' as they were only retraces and I never had any ill intent whatsoever."