Trade Coin Club
Summary
Trade Coin Club (TCC) was a multi-level marketing cryptocurrency program that operated from late 2016 through mid-2018, allegedly collecting over 82,000 Bitcoin valued at approximately $295 million from more than 100,000 investors worldwide. The program falsely promised daily returns of at least 0.35% generated by an automated trading bot; the SEC and DOJ allege no such trading occurred and that investor withdrawals were funded entirely by new investor deposits, constituting a classic Ponzi scheme. In November 2022, the SEC charged four individuals including founder Douver Torres Braga; Braga was subsequently extradited from Switzerland in February 2025 to face a 13-count federal criminal indictment.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 9 more
Timeline(19 events)
2017-09-01
Investor withdrawals begin exceeding new deposits, indicating Ponzi collapse dynamics
BehindMLM / SEC complaint2017-11-01
Trade Coin Club initiates TCoin exit strategy, introducing in-house token to replace Bitcoin withdrawals
BehindMLM2018-02-01
Trade Coin Club announces it will no longer pay withdrawals in Bitcoin; switches exclusively to TCoin, which subsequently becomes worthless
BehindMLM / SEC complaint2022-10-05
Grand jury in Western District of Washington returns sealed indictment against Braga; bench warrant issued
BehindMLM / DOJ2022-11-03
SEC files civil complaints in Western District of Washington against Braga, Paradise, Taylor (Case 2:22-cv-01563) and Tetreault (Case 2:22-cv-01567)
SEC2022-11-21
Jonathan Tetreault agrees to settle SEC civil charges, paying approximately $781,000
SEC / CoinDesk2024-08-16
Court clerk enters default against both Joff Paradise and Keleionalani Taylor in SEC civil action
BehindMLM2025-02-08
Douver Torres Braga arrested by Swiss authorities while traveling outside Brazil
DOJ / BehindMLM2025-02-21
Braga extradited to the United States; makes initial court appearance in Seattle; pleads not guilty to 13-count indictment
DOJ USAO-WDWA2025-03-06
Court grants stipulation staying all SEC civil proceedings pending outcome of Braga's criminal trial
BehindMLM2025-04-28
Criminal trial before U.S. District Judge Tana Lin scheduled to begin in Seattle (outcome not publicly confirmed as of research date)
DOJ USAO-WDWADecision Log
- hash: FQKpQsQ5sXLQWVcmbQvzkw8P2DbpkNiU7UQtCs5DaCuZ
- hash: JALeTLU5p2chZDWZc6pusFtTbm9vcAhSLCgGGTCLuto
- hash: GxVPQNvXQWz5Na54uX8BvuRyEbEUJQpT6uUrFuVPNMtR
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/31/2026, 7:53:31 PM
last updated: 6/1/2026, 3:22:03 AM
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