A Familiar Path to Instant Cryptocurrency Windfalls Reopens
- ‘Key opinion leaders’ get big discounts in funding rounds
- SEC has cracked down on influencer marketing of crypto tokens
Crypto markets were booming in March, as Bitcoin barreled toward a record and billions of dollars flowed into new ETFs. But one particular group of investors had greater reason to cheer than most.
Around that time, startup Monad Labs was wrapping up a funding round in which venture capital investors including Paradigm valued it at $3 billion. While big by crypto standards, the Monad deal had another distinguishing feature: Some people known in the industry as “key opinion leaders” were allowed to invest at a fifth of the Paradigm valuation, people with knowledge of the matter said.