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Ex-SafeMoon CEO gets 8-year prison sentence for defrauding investors

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Ex-SafeMoon CEO gets 8-year prison sentence for defrauding investors

Former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony will face an 8-year prison sentence after being convicted last year on a string of federal charges tied to defrauding investors in his digital assets operation.

The 100-month sentence was handed down Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and Karony must also forfeit $7.5 million and two residences in the case.

“Karony lied to investors from all walks of life — including military veterans and hard-working Americans — and defrauded thousands of victims in order to buy mansions, sports cars, and custom trucks,” stated United States Attorney Nocella, in a statement. “Our office will continue to vigorously prosecute economic crimes that harm investors and weaken societal trust in the stability and security of digital asset markets.”

Karony was said to have participated in manipulating the price of the SafeMoon token and illicitly controlling liquidity pools in the failed Utah-based company to drain millions of dollars, according to the Department of Justice. After a three-week trial, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

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One co-conspirator, Thomas Smith, also pleaded guilty in February 2025 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, though he hasn’t yet been sentenced. Another alleged SafeMoon conspirator, Kyle Nagy, is still wanted by authorities.

Read More: SafeMoon Execs Arrested by DOJ in Fraud Investigation, Charged by SEC

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Crypto World

What Does it Mean for Bitcoin?

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What Does it Mean for Bitcoin?

Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, revealed on CNBC this week that his firm purchased approximately $17 billion in US Treasury bills at the latest auction. Is a stock market crash coming and what does it mean for Bitcoin (BTC)?

Key takeaways:

  • Berkshire held $373 billion in cash or cash equivalents as of 2025’s close, more than double the levels in 2023.

  • The firm’s rising cash reserves typically precede major stock market crashes, a bad sign for Bitcoin.

Buffett still sees better value in cash than in stocks

Buffett’s message is straightforward: Berkshire does not see the recent equity pullback as a sufficiently attractive buying opportunity.

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For context, the S&P 500 has fallen about 5.75% since reaching a record high in January.

S&P 500 weekly performance chart. Source: TradingView

Buffett said stocks are not “substantially” cheaper after the decline and described the sell-off as “nothing” compared with earlier downturns in which markets fell more than 50%.

That helps explain Berkshire’s latest Treasury-bill purchase. The company ended 2025 with about $373 billion in cash and equivalents, up from a record $334.2 billion a year earlier and more than double its level at the end of 2023.

Buffett, who famously called Bitcoin “rat poison,” typically gets into cash before major stock crashes, historical data shows.

In 1998, for instance, Buffett began trimming Berkshire’s stock exposure and raising cash, pushing the company’s cash and cash-equivalents holdings to $13.1 billion, or about 23% of total assets.

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Berkshire’s cash and cash-equivalents holdings chart. Source: GuruFocus.COM

By mid-2000, that figure had climbed to nearly $15 billion, or roughly 25% of assets, before Berkshire started deploying capital into bargains as the Dot-com bubble burst.

Bitcoin’s positive correlation with stocks may hurt prices

Bitcoin has traded more like a stock than a traditional safe haven for much of the post-2020 period, often moving in the same direction as US equities, especially the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

As of Wednesday, the 20-week rolling correlation coefficient between the two markets was positive at 0.47.

Nasdaq Composite and BTC/USD’s 20-week correlation coefficient chart. Source: TradingView

If Buffett’s risk-off strategy is correct, then Bitcoin should see another crash alongside stocks. Fresh quantum-security concerns, war-driven inflation risks, and nearly 50% US recession odds are putting pressure on the BTC price.

Berkshire’s portfolio decisions have also leaned away from crypto-adjacent finance.

In the first quarter of 2025, the firm fully exited Nu Holdings, a crypto-friendly fintech company, after building its position in 2021 and 2022. It secured about $250 million in profits from these investments.

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Multiple analysts predict BTC’s price to drop to as low as $30,000 in 2026.