A man in the United States has admitted to participating in a cryptocurrency fraud case involving a staggering $1.8 billion.

BlockBeats News, June 17th. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, Florida man Rodney Burton has pleaded guilty in federal court in a cryptocurrency scam case involving a staggering $1.8 billion. Under the plea agreement, from June 2020 to January 2022, Burton conspired to provide unlicensed money transmitting services to promote HyperFund and use investors' funds for his own gain. HyperFund claimed to be a legitimate cryptocurrency investment platform, but was actually a global wire fraud scheme that obtained $1.8 billion from investors worldwide.

HyperFund promotional materials made several false statements, including claims that investors who purchased HyperFund "memberships" would receive daily passive rewards of 0.5% to 1% until the company doubled or tripled the investors' initial investment. HyperFund also claimed that its high returns were derived from a large-scale cryptocurrency mining operation, which did not actually exist. Since 2021, HyperFund has started restricting investors from making withdrawals.

Burton controlled multiple companies that purported to offer consulting services but were actually unlicensed money transmitting businesses. Burton personally received at least $7.851711 million from the unlicensed money transmitting operation, including funds from Maryland HyperFund victims. Burton faces up to 5 years in federal prison.