Rodney Burton pleaded guilty to conspiring in a $1.8 billion cryptocurrency fraud, personally profiting $7.8 million from the scheme.
A Florida man known as ‘Bitcoin Rodney’ pleaded guilty to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business linked to a $1.8 billion cryptocurrency fraud scheme. Rodney Burton, 56, admitted to promoting HyperFund, a platform prosecutors allege was a wire-fraud operation targeting global investors.
HyperFund lured investors with promises of daily returns of 0.5% to 1% until their initial stakes doubled or tripled. Prosecutors state the platform falsely claimed payouts were funded by crypto-mining operations that did not exist. By 2021, HyperFund began freezing investor withdrawals entirely.
Burton personally received over $7.8 million from the scheme and faces up to five years in prison, with sentencing set for July 23.