‘Bitcoin Rodney’ Pleads Guilty in $1.8Bn Fraud

In Bitcoin news today, Rodney Burton, the Miami-based promoter known online as ‘Bitcoin Rodney’, pleaded guilty on June 15, 2026, to conspiracy charges tied to HyperFund, a $1.8Bn crypto fraud scheme that extracted investor funds from victims across the globe.

The plea, entered in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, exposes Burton to a maximum of five years in federal prison, with sentencing set for July 23, 2026, before US District Judge Richard D. Bennett.

This news dropped as Bitcoin fell -1.8% overnight, with BTC USD currently trading at $64,000 and daily volume hitting $32Bn. The total crypto market cap is down -1.6% in the past 24 hours, dropping below $2.3 trillion.

$BTC dumped after the pre-FOMC pump as expected.

We printed on the long yesterday, and for today there might be an interesting short opportunity.

We lost the previous daily low, so the 66.5K high is my invalidation for shorts today.

Yesterdays dump left a daily imbalance at… pic.twitter.com/0XKpLZzPG1

— Lennaert Snyder (@LennaertSnyder) June 18, 2026

Bitcoin News Today: What HyperFund Actually Was

HyperFund, later rebranded as HyperVerse, marketed itself as a legitimate crypto investment platform beginning around mid-2020. It sold tiered memberships promising daily returns of 0.5% to 1%, rates that would double or triple a member’s principal within months, supposedly generated by cryptocurrency mining revenues.

Those mining operations never existed. According to prosecutors, the platform was a classic Ponzi structure: early investors were paid using funds from new recruits, not from any productive enterprise.

A man called himself “Bitcoin Rodney,” got Jamie Foxx and Rick Ross to show up at his crypto conference and collected $1.8 BILLION from investors. The mining operations he promised didn’t exist. Yesterday he pleaded guilty.

– Rodney Burton was a 56-year-old Miami crypto… pic.twitter.com/APs9wN5dkL

— Aisar (@aisarcore) June 18, 2026

“HyperFund, which purported to be a legitimate cryptocurrency investment platform, but in truth, was a global wire-fraud scheme that obtained $1.8Bn from victim-investors worldwide,” the Department of Justice said in its press release.

HyperFund began restricting withdrawals in 2021 before ultimately collapsing, leaving investors with losses on a scale that ranks among the larger crypto fraud cases prosecuted in US courts.

The SEC filed a parallel civil enforcement action in 2024, alleging the platform sold unregistered securities and characterizing it as a $1.7Bn crypto pyramid scheme.

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Burton’s Role and What the Plea Resolves

Burton was not the architect of HyperFund; that role belongs to co-founder Sam Lee, who is currently outside US custody following charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in January 2024.

Burton served as a US-based promoter and was accused of providing unlicensed money-transmitting services to promote HyperFund from June 2020 to January 2022, operating entities that rerouted investor funds.

A December 2025 superseding indictment charged him with 11 federal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, potentially leading to decades in prison.

He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of unlicensed money transmitting conspiracy, having personally received at least $7.85 million. Prosecutors noted that over 600 payments totaling more than $9M were used to fund luxury items. A Maryland federal judge deemed him a flight risk, resulting in pretrial detention.

Another promoter, Brenda Chunga, known as “Bitcoin Beautee,” pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the DOJ, aiding the investigation led by the IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security.

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In this Bitcoin news today, Burton’s case serves as a warning to influencers and recruiters involved in crypto investment schemes. The DOJ’s pursuit of promoters in Ponzi-style cases highlights that marketing fraudulent platforms and managing funds through shell entities can lead to federal criminal charges, regardless of the arrangement’s label. This has affected Bitcoin’s reputation, an issue legitimate market participants are working to address.

Further sentencing and restitution orders are expected in the HyperFund case, with the unresolved issue of securing custody of Sam Lee, who is outside US jurisdiction.

Burton’s admissions could bolster restitution claims against other promoters, even those beyond U.S. reach. Regulators have shown that operating unlicensed financial infrastructure in the U.S. crypto market has serious consequences, as demonstrated by the SEC’s action against Bittrex.

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