The story of Ryan Breslow and his crypto disasters
Ryan Breslow, founder and former CEO of Bolt, an online payment platform that was last raised at a valuation of $11 billion, has faced a number of challenges in the crypto ecosystem. These include handing over a DAO to a convicted fraudster and being accused of misrepresenting how Eco, a company he co-founded, made returns.
Breslow resigned as CEO of Bolt in January 2022, several months before the New York Times (NYT) dropped an investigation alleging that Bolt and Breslow misrepresented the platform’s ability to sign new clients.
Before stepping down as CEO, Breslow started several cryptocurrency initiatives, including Movement DAO, and co-founded a company called Eco that allowed users to monetize their money.
Movement DAO was intended to be a ‘social impact’ DAO which allowed users to contribute their money in exchange for “MOVE” tokens. They could then vote to decide what DAO would support.
Breslow allegedly hired convicted fraudster Mark Phillips to develop The DAO, after Phillips convinced them that he had previously been a developer at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Breslow and the other co-founders allegedly gave Phillips enough keys to control the multi-signature wallet at the heart of the ‘DAO’, and have since filed a complaint alleging that approximately $16 million in funds they contributed have been stolen.
On March 5, Fintech Business Weekly reported that Breslow’s second cryptocurrency Eco, which represented that it lent to Goldman Sachs and Fidelity, actually entered into the BlockFi, Wyre and DeFi protocols.
Basically, Eco appears to have gained about 8.6% at BlockFi and transfer 2.5-5% to the users, so that it can make a tidy profit. This despite Fintech Business Weekly claiming that “Eco did not place user funds with BlockFi.” An Eco spokesperson said that “Previously, Eco worked with BlockFi to generate returns on our company funds, never on user funds. User funds were never placed on BlockFi.”
Read more: FTX and BlockFi bankruptcies scare Visa and Mastercard
Ultimately, Eco would switch from the now-bankrupt BlockFi to Wyre. Wyre offered its own “savings service” that also involved lending deposits, but also involved distributing them in DeFi protocols. An Eco spokesperson confirmed to Protos that they were using Wyre, saying “Eco users’ funds were lent by our former partner Wyre from late 2020 to May 2022. During that time, Eco users explicitly agreed to Wyre’s rewards program terms for use and opened an account with Wyre to hold their funds, which were then lent by Wyre.”
- March 2022: Eco notified users that it would move funds out of Wyre and into Prime Trust.
- April 2022: Bolt, the other company founded by Breslow, announced it was acquiring Wyre in a $1.5 billion deal.
- May 2022: Eco has finished moving the funds from Wyre and into Prime Trust.
- September 2022: It was announced that the Bolt-Wyre acquisition would not be completed.
- October 2022: Eco moved to Zero Hash for his care needs.
- January 2023: Wyre was reported to be making layoffs and “scaling back.”
It is not clear what motivated Bolt to attempt to acquire Wyre afterwards Eco had already started looking for replacement suppliers and moving funds.
Eco has also reportedly had to inform customers that they will no longer be able to trust Signature Bank and Trust. Instead, it uses Piermont Bank and Prime Trust and has paid user interest from its own corporate treasury. Reportedly, the solution to making this sustainable is to launch a new token.
The Protos reached out to Bolt and were told that The company has no comments. We also reached out to Wyre, Eco and Breslow with questions and will update if we hear back.
Update 6 March 2023 21:40: Added comments from an Eco spokesperson.
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