ChainCatcher reports that, according to Coindesk, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York sentenced former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony to eight years in prison on Tuesday. Braden was convicted last year of multiple federal charges for defrauding investors in his digital asset business.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Karony was involved in manipulating the price of the SafeMoon token and stealing millions of dollars through illegal liquidity control of the company. After a three-week trial, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Conspirator Thomas Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in February 2025 and has not yet been sentenced. Another conspirator suspected of involvement in the SafeMoon fraud, Kyle Nagy, remains at large.
SafeMoon (SFM) is a cryptocurrency token launched in March 2021, born during the previous bull market's meme and DeFi boom. Its token economics stipulates a 10% tax on each transaction, with a portion (usually 5%) automatically distributed as dividends to all holders, another portion added to liquidity pools, token burning to create deflation, and a third used for project development. The design philosophy was "encourage holding, punish selling," allowing holders to passively earn tokens, hoping the price would "safely go to the moon." Its market capitalization once reached $1 billion, attracting a large number of retail investors and FOMO players. Subsequently, the project's contract was compromised, and the team was accused of fraud, liquidity manipulation, and misappropriation of funds. After a prolonged and continuous decline, its current market capitalization is only $2.08 million.
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