SEC settles with Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled on charges of promoting ICOs without disclosing payments; Mayweather to pay $600K+ in fees, Khaled to pay $150K+
yep they were all shady as hell http://techcrunch.com/... Nathaniel Popper / @nathanielpopper : Last year at this time Floyd Mayweather Jr. and DJ Khaled were promoting ICOs and getting paid for it. Now, they are giving all that money back, and more, to regulators, and agreeing to a ban on future promotions. https://www.sec.gov/... Andrew Rennhack / @andr3w321 : Floyd got paid $100k by an ICO team and ended up paying the SEC $614,775 DJ Khaled got paid $50k by an ICO team and ended up paying the SEC $152,725 Don't shill illegal securities and fail to disclose your payment to promote guys. http://twitter.com/... Nikhilesh De / @nikhileshde : .@FloydMayweather and @djkhaled settled charges with @SEC_News for promoting Centra Tech, Stox and Hubii Network without disclosing that they were paid to do so: https://www.coindesk.com/... Zack Guzman / @zguz : The SEC just announced it settled charges against DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather Jr. for failing to disclose ICO kickbacks. Mayweather agreed to forfeit over $600K in penalties and disgorgement while Khaled agreed to pay over $150,000. ANOTHER ONE in the SEC's crypto crackdown. pic.twitter.com/gWjFKz4jVf Daniel Roberts / @readdanwrite : SEC: Floyd Mayweather can't pump any crypto for 3 years, DJ Khaled for 2 years. pic.twitter.com/Cx8EM0rD4C Kadhim / @kadhimshubber : Mayweather, as part of his settlement, has promised to continue to co-operate with the SEC's ongoing investigation https://www.sec.gov/... pic.twitter.com/u8ySk1genz Rebecca Jarvis / @rebeccajarvis : Mayweather failed to disclose payments from 3 ICO issuers, including $100K from Centra Tech, DJ Khaled failed to disclose $50K from Centra Tech, which he touted on social media as a “Game changer.” Mayweather's IG post: “You can call me Floyd Crypto Mayweather from now on.” https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a loop that opened in October 2017, when [[a:923598|New York Times reporting showed how Mayweather and Khaled's endorsements helped Centra's $30M debit-card ICO]] despite its made-up CEO and false Visa approval claims. The SEC then charged Centra Tech's co-founders with fraud in April 2018 after the token raised $32M+, and today's settlements extend enforcement from the issuers to the celebrities who sold it.
The penalties are calibrated to what each was paid: Mayweather, who got $100K per promotion across multiple ICOs including Stox and Hubii Network, pays $614,775 plus disgorgement and takes a three-year promo ban; Khaled, paid $50K for Centra alone, pays $152,725 and is barred for two years. Both also agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
First-order effects
- Mayweather and Khaled are immediately out of the paid-crypto-promotion business — Mayweather for three years, Khaled for two — and must return more than they earned, turning prior endorsement fees into net losses.
- The ICO teams that hired them, including Centra Tech's already-charged founders, face an SEC now explicitly treating undisclosed celebrity payments as part of the securities-fraud fact pattern.
Second-order effects
- Other celebrities who took ICO money in 2017 now face a clear price list for non-disclosure — pay back multiples of the fee or litigate — making legal review of any future token endorsement a prerequisite rather than an afterthought.
- Token issuers lose their cheapest distribution channel: celebrity social reach now carries disclosed-payment requirements and personal liability, pushing marketing toward compliant channels and raising customer-acquisition costs across the ICO market.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, paid promotion of unregistered tokens becomes a regulated activity like securities touting, with disclosure rules and bans as standard remedies — collapsing the gray zone that let 2017-era ICOs buy credibility through fame.
- The settlements give the SEC a template for pursuing intermediaries and promoters alongside issuers, which matters as the agency simultaneously works on exemptions for legitimate token offerings — enforcement on one side, a sanctioned path on the other.
The trend: Crypto promotion is being pulled from influencer marketing into securities law, with the SEC pricing undisclosed shilling at multiples of the fee and pairing enforcement with eventual sanctioned offering paths.