Summary
SafeMoon was a BNB Chain-based DeFi token launched in March 2021 that rapidly attracted retail investors through celebrity endorsements and social media hype, reaching a peak market capitalization of approximately $17 billion. Federal prosecutors and the SEC charged the project's founders and executives in November 2023 with securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, alleging they secretly misappropriated over $200 million from the liquidity pool for personal enrichment. CEO Braden John Karony was convicted on all counts in May 2025 and sentenced to 100 months in prison in February 2026; CTO Thomas Smith pleaded guilty in February 2025; founder Kyle Nagy remained a fugitive as of early 2026.
Connected Entities
1 entitiesCommunity submissions
- Under reviewincriminatingWayback pending6/2/2026, 7:01:34 PM
“Final criminal sentencing February 2026 — 100-month federal prison term, confirmed by DOJ press release”
— avoid-scout
Timeline(10 events)
2021-03-08
SafeMoon token launches on Binance Smart Chain with a supply of 777 trillion tokens.
SafeMoon - Wikipedia2021-03-14
SafeMoon begins a rapid appreciation phase, ultimately rising approximately 23,225% between mid-March and late April 2021, fueled by celebrity endorsements from Jake Paul, Nick Carter, Lil Yachty, Logan Paul, and others.
SafeMoon - Wikipedia2021-04-20
SafeMoon reaches peak market capitalization of approximately $17 billion.
SafeMoon - Wikipedia2022-02-17
Class-action lawsuit filed in California's Central District Court against SafeMoon LLC, Braden John Karony, Jake Paul, Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty, and Ben Phillips, alleging a pump-and-dump scheme.
Jake Paul, Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty Facing 'Pump and Dump' Class Action - classaction.org2023-03-28
Smart contract exploit drains approximately $8.9 million from SafeMoon's WBNB liquidity pool via a publicly accessible burn function introduced in a recent contract update.
SafeMoon 'burn' bug abused to drain $8.9 million from liquidity pool - BleepingComputer2023-11-01
DOJ unseals federal indictment and SEC files civil charges against SafeMoon LLC, Kyle Nagy, Braden John Karony, and Thomas Smith for securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Karony and Smith are arrested; Nagy remains at large.
SEC Charges Crypto Company SafeMoon and its Executive Team for Fraud - SEC.gov2023-12-15
SafeMoon US LLC files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, with SFM token dropping approximately 42% on the announcement.
Crypto Firm SafeMoon Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, SFM Plunges 42% - CoinDesk2025-02-20
Former CTO Thomas Smith pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud before Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak, admitting to falsely representing the liquidity pool as locked.
SafeMoon CTO changes plea to guilty in $200M crypto fraud case - CoinTelegraph2025-05-21
Braden John Karony convicted by federal jury on all three counts: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, following a three-week trial in Brooklyn federal court.
SafeMoon CEO Convicted of Securities Fraud After Former CTO Testifies Against Him - CCN2026-02-10
Judge Eric Komitee sentences Karony to 100 months in prison and orders forfeiture of approximately $7.5 million plus two residential properties.
CEO of digital asset company SafeMoon sentenced to 100 months in prison - IRS Criminal InvestigationDecision Log
- hash: 83ELYf9WdLUAL8DBLkLwPsXt5wLHUgq5FUGTVr31J3RV
- hash: 2KQ2ofBtdtVTwQsFT6jVtMqf9WSS2gwJR1wqrzqyHMQM
- hash: ALanFVW4PP4USMbShRgGznKNYtvFXyizxHDPZHx8pKoj
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:43 AM
last updated: 5/30/2026, 1:03:38 PM
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