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Derek Lim · · 14 min readSingapore’s ‘Crypto King’ has no clothes
Derek Lim is the head of crypto insights at cryptocurrency trading platform Bybit. He also contributes to Tech in Asia.
In January, disgruntled investors in the US sued celebrities such as reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, and ex-NBA player Paul Pierce after a cryptocurrency they promoted shed roughly about 97% of its value.
For many in Singapore, this incident might be entertainment fodder. For a few others, however, this scenario may hit a little too close to home. After all, some social media influencers in the city-state have also been promoting digital coins to their followers that ultimately lost most of their value.
One such influencer is Ryan Tan, who was previously embroiled in a public spat with his ex-wife Sylvia Chan. The couple co-founded Night Owl Cinematics, a YouTube channel and production firm known for its lifestyle and comedy videos.
Ryan Tan, Singapore’s “Crypto King” / Photo credit: Ryan Tan
These incidents, in light of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s recent ban on crypto-related advertising, raise questions about the legality and ethics of influencers promoting cryptocurrency, which is rife with scams and pump-and-dump schemes.
The birth of the “Crypto King”
While his feud with Chan was playing out in the media in late 2021, Tan started posting about crypto on his Instagram stories. In them, he shared about his two-week foray into non-fungible tokens or NFTs and play-to-earn (P2E) gaming.
Tan also included a link to help his followers set up accounts on the popular Metamask crypto wallet as well as two other centralized crypto exchanges (CEXes). He promoted his own crypto Telegram group – which he later named “Crypto King” – to his followers, encouraging them to join so they can start their crypto journey with his guidance. (He runs a separate social media channel called Reno King that focuses on home renovations.)
In the next few stories, Tan talked about two P2E games that he was playing and gave brief pointers about their pros and cons.
The first game he introduced was Bomb Crypto.
How Crypto King bombed
“Not my fault”
Problematic moves
Lessons to be learned
Were Tan’s actions legal?
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Ryan Tan, an influencer who runs a social media channel called Crypto King, shilled digital coins to his followers. These turned out to be bad bets.
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