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Fortune
Fortune
Leo Schwartz

How a dodgy crypto influencer got rich on YouTube and Twitter—while the platforms and the SEC failed to act

Photo illustration of gold coin wrapped in warning tape. (Credit: Photo Illustration by Fortune; Original Photos by Getty Images (2))

Wayne Kacheche believed in Dogecoin because Elon Musk did. The Tesla founder and billionaire kept talking up the popular meme token on Twitter, and in May 2021 even joked about Dogecoin during a Saturday Night Live segment. Shortly after the episode aired, Dogecoin plunged 40%.

Kacheche, then a 19-year-old university student living in South Africa, decided to check out Dogecoin. He started watching YouTube videos and came to share a widespread sentiment in the crypto world that Dogecoin had peaked. He began to search for altcoins, going down an algorithmic rabbit hole that brought him to a crypto influencer named Crypto Pablo. After two months of investing, Kacheche believed the channel mostly pushed scams.

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