Trade Coin Club
A 2016–2018 MLM scheme that the SEC says raised 82,000+ BTC (~$295M at the time) from 100,000+ investors on the false promise of a trading 'bot'. The SEC charged founder Douver Braga and promoters; Braga was extradited to the U.S. and faces criminal charges.
Also known as: Trade Coin Club, TCC, Douver Braga, Douver Torres Braga
Summary
Trade Coin Club (TCC) was a multi-level-marketing program (2016–2018) that promised profits from a purported crypto trading "bot" said to perform "millions of microtransactions" per second with guaranteed daily returns. The SEC says it operated as a Ponzi scheme that raised more than 82,000 BTC — about $295 million at the time — from over 100,000 investors, with withdrawals funded by other investors' deposits. [1][2]
People and status
The SEC alleged that founder Douver Torres Braga personally received about 8,396 BTC (~$55M). Braga was indicted, arrested in Switzerland, and extradited to the U.S., where he faces criminal wire-fraud charges; the SEC's civil case is pending. These are charges; he is presumed innocent unless and until convicted. [1][3]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (3)
- SEC Charges Creator of Global Crypto Ponzi Scheme ($295M) — U.S. SEC
- Top 5 SEC Enforcement Developments (Trade Coin Club) — Harvard Law (corpgov)
- United States vs. Douver Braga (case) — U.S. DOJ (WDWA)
See also
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — Justin Sun token freezeProjectsWLFI, a DeFi project linked to Donald Trump and his family, blacklisted/froze the wallet of major investor Justin Sun in Sept 2025 — ~540–595M unlocked WLFI tokens (~$107M) plus ~2.4B locked. Sun sued, alleging an undisclosed admin 'blacklist backdoor'; WLFI denied it and threatened a countersuit. The dispute is ongoing.
Gala Games exploitTokensOn May 20, 2024 an attacker abused a privileged minter account on the GALA token contract to mint 5 billion GALA (≈$200M+ nominal) and dumped ~600M of them for ~$22M of ETH before Gala froze the address. Gala Games called it an internal access-control failure; the attacker later returned the ~$22M.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.
