Stake.com
Summary
Stake.com is the world's largest crypto gambling platform by revenue, founded in 2017 by Australian entrepreneurs Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani and operating under a Curacao gaming license. In September 2023, the platform suffered a $41 million hot wallet breach that the FBI formally attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group (APT38). The platform faces mounting legal and regulatory pressure across multiple jurisdictions, including a landmark California civil suit filed by the Los Angeles City Attorney in 2025, multiple class action lawsuits, and a UK exit following a Gambling Commission investigation.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 1 linked investigation- + 2 more
Timeline(12 events)
2017-08-01
Stake.com launched by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani through Easygo, operating under a Curacao gaming license.
2022-10-01
Twitch bans Stake.com from advertising on its platform, citing lack of consumer protections for unlicensed gambling.
2023-01-01
Kick streaming platform launched by Stake co-founders Craven and Tehrani as a direct Twitch competitor, within two months of the Twitch ban.
2023-04-01
UK Gambling Commission fines TGP Europe (Stake's UK operator) £316,250 for AML and social responsibility failures.
2023-09-04
$41 million drained from Stake.com hot wallets across Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon in a targeted security breach.
2023-09-06
FBI issues formal statement attributing the Stake.com hack to North Korea's Lazarus Group (APT38), publishing attacker wallet addresses.
2024-01-01
DOJ civil forfeiture complaint names Stake.com as a platform through which SIM-swap-derived stolen Bitcoin was laundered via circular transactions.
2025-02-13
Stake announces exit from UK market amid Gambling Commission investigation into social media advertising; operations cease March 11, 2025.
2025-08-28
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto files civil complaint against Stake.us, Easygo, Kick, Ed Craven, Bijan Tehrani, and game suppliers for alleged illegal gambling in California.
2025-10-27
Class action lawsuit filed in Missouri naming Stake.us, Drake, and Adin Ross for alleged deceptive gambling promotion.
2025-12-01
Class action complaint filed in Virginia federal court against Stake.us, Drake, and Adin Ross alleging illegal online gambling under federal and state law.
2026-04-01
Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law publishes analysis of the Stake class action litigation, describing its sweeping implications for US social casino operators.
Decision Log
- hash: 5hHi3TbHdsBsJS4gjK4feVsKQRoxe6dm5WtE57tAtM2q
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/30/2026, 7:10:38 PM
last updated: 5/30/2026, 7:10:41 PM
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