On September 17, 2025, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) highlighted 13 GSPartners enforcement actions as key examples of U.S. state regulators combating crypto fraud. In a letter to the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, NASAA President Marni Rock Gibson urged Congress to preserve state authority, warning that weakening it would exacerbate an “epidemic of online fraud” involving distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) and AI, per. Since 2017, states have initiated over 330 crypto-related enforcement actions, including Ponzi schemes like GSPartners.
GSPartners, launched in 2020, operated as a fraudulent investment scheme centered on the G999 token, promising high returns through a multi-level marketing (MLM) structure. After G999 collapsed post-2022, it shifted to USDT and internal tokens, defrauding investors of nearly $1B worldwide, per NASAA’s citation of GSPartners’ marketing. The scheme collapsed in late 2023, triggering coordinated state actions in 2023–2024 against GSPartners, parent GSB Gold Standard Corporation, and founder Josip Heit, per. Heit, a Croatian-German national based in Dubai, settled with most North American regulators in September 2024, but Texas withdrew in March 2025 over violations, reopening talks in August 2025, per.
NASAA categorized GSPartners cases as “crypto offering frauds,” detailing 13 actions from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Arizona (including Swiss Valorem Bank), New Hampshire, Mississippi, California, Texas (Billionico, dismissed July 2025), Washington, and Wisconsin, per. These actions involved cease-and-desist orders, fines, and restitution for unregistered securities sales. For instance, California’s DFPI secured a settlement requiring full refunds minus withdrawals, with claims closing May 22, 2025. Arizona reported ongoing claims review across 45 jurisdictions as of August 20, 2025. States’ prosecutorial roles led to 5,531 months of prison sentences in 2023, per.
Heit continued fraud outside North America via DAO1 and Apertum Foundation’s APTM token, importing G999 into Apertum DEX on September 4, 2025, per. Australia and New Zealand issued DAO1 fraud warnings. DAO1 traffic fell 35% month-over-month in August 2025, with top sources shifting to the Dominican Republic (35%), the U.S. (18%), Germany (16%), Greece (10%), and France (9%), per SimilarWeb. NASAA warns that limiting state powers would harm investors, as states often prosecute where federal agencies like the SEC or DOJ do not.
NASAA’s letter counters proposed federal legislation like the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act of 2025, which could undermine state investment contract laws, per. Proposing the Support Anti-Fraud Enforcement Act (SAFE Act), NASAA emphasizes states’ role in Operation Cryptosweep (2018), per. Bitcoin (BTC) ($113,234) and Ethereum (ETH) ($4,070) remain stable, per CoinMarketCap, but stronger state enforcement could build trust and reduce $50.5B in 2024 fraud losses, per. Investors should verify offerings via nasaa.org/contact-your-regulator and diversify into USDC or ETH with stop-losses below BTC’s $112,000, per TradingView. Follow @TheBlock__ on X for updates.
