The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has prevailed in its fraud case against crypto platform NanoBit Limited, winning a final judgment that requires defendants tied to the scheme to pay roughly $5.4 million. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered the judgment on June 16, concluding litigation that began with SEC allegations in 2024.
According to the SEC, NanoBit operators used social media to recruit investors and then added them to WhatsApp groups where impersonators posed as financial professionals. Investors were directed to deposit funds into a bogus trading platform that showed fake dashboards with rising returns. Instead of executing trades, the SEC says, funds were diverted to participants in the scheme and to bank accounts in Hong Kong, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto assets were misappropriated.
The SEC alleged NanoBit falsely claimed an affiliate, NanobitUS Securities, was an SEC-registered broker and promoted sham initial coin offerings promising large returns. Investors seeking withdrawals reportedly faced excuses, large fee demands, or were removed from the WhatsApp groups when they questioned the platform’s legitimacy.
The court found the defendants violated U.S. securities laws and issued permanent injunctions barring them from issuing, buying, or selling securities. The monetary judgments ordered against the defendants total about $5.46 million: NanoBit itself was ordered to pay a $1.18 million civil penalty, disgorgement of roughly $532,000, and prejudgment interest of about $81,200 (about $1.8 million total); three affiliated entities — Radiant Horizons, Sweet Karma and Zhao Deli — were each ordered to pay a $1.18 million civil penalty; and one of the principal orchestrators, Jiajie Liu, was ordered to pay approximately $120,000 in penalties, disgorgement and interest.
The SEC’s action against NanoBit is part of continued enforcement targeting crypto-related fraud. In late May, the agency charged a Texas man accused of running a scheme that raised more than $12 million by falsely promising guaranteed returns from AI-powered trading bots. In April, the SEC brought charges against crypto executive Donald Basile and companies he controlled for raising roughly $16 million through false claims tied to a token called Bitcoin Latinum.
The NanoBit case underscores common elements in crypto scams: recruitment through social media, fabricated performance displays, impersonation of regulated professionals, and rapid diversion of investor funds to third-party accounts. The SEC’s enforcement measures included injunctions and monetary relief intended to hold responsible parties accountable and deter similar schemes.
The SEC announced the final judgment and related enforcement actions in public filings and litigation releases. Readers are encouraged to review official court and SEC documents for full details of the order and the underlying complaint.