After the President of Argentina briefly endorsed the $LIBRA coin, the interest group around the entire Solana ecosystem MEME coin has sparked significant discussions, with a venture capital firm named Kelsier Ventures emerging.

On the surface, this firm is focused on investing in and marketing the Web3 space; however, it has been exposed as a tightly knit team orchestrating a memecoin project from the inside, not only with $LIBRA but also deeply involved in $MELANIA (Melania Trump coin). According to The Big Whale's investigation, Kelsier Ventures also attempted to expand this model to Nigeria, engaging with members of the country's government. A source revealed, "This project has reached a fairly advanced stage." There are indications that Kelsier Ventures is also in talks with other countries, planning to replicate the same memecoin issuance model.

As the Kelsier Ventures scandal continues to unfold, more and more insider trading, fund transfers, and political entanglements are coming to light. What is the background of this Kelsier Ventures? What is their origin? And who are the people behind it?

The Network Behind Kelsier Ventures, the Davis Family

Looking at the official information, Kelsier Ventures' official website (Kelsier.io) introduces itself as driving Web3 innovation through market expertise, in-depth research, and targeted investments. They claim to provide support at all stages of a project, from conceptualization to market launch, offering tailored comprehensive support.

Evidently, after the scandal unfolded, their website has removed much of the previous information, including team member introductions. In screenshots provided by community members, we can see the following team members, who will be detailed below.

Among various financing news reported by other overseas media, BlockBeats found only three financing pieces of information about this venture:

In May 2024, Kelsier organized a funding round, raising $3.5 million to support E Money Network, a company focused on asset tokenization and virtual wallet development.

Earlier in November 2023, Kelsier also participated in the funding of Saturn, a Bitcoin non-custodial P2P order book service provider, with Big Brain Holdings leading, and other funders including UTXO Management and the BOOGLE Syndicate.

The most recent investment was on January 16, 2025, when Kelsier Ventures invested $30,000 in Solana's DeFi protocol Defituna, becoming its second smallest investor. Currently, after the scandal involving Kelsier Ventures, Defituna has refunded the investment.

Now, let's take a look at Kelsier Ventures' team members, a true family business. Hayden serves as the CEO, his father Tom as the Chairman, and his brother Gideon as the COO.

Davis Family Portrait

According to BlockBeats' investigation, the Davis family seems to have a deep commitment to building a family business.

In the 9th episode of the brothers' podcast "Young Dumb & Woke," where Hayden and his brother Gideon interviewed their father Tom, they mentioned how happy they were to establish a family business.

Also, in their mother Emily Chynoweth Davis's blog, she mentioned, "We founded a family business in 2023, which can make our family like a pack of wolves, tightly binding our family together." This family business mentioned here should be Kelsier Ventures.

Next, let's delve into the details of these key members.

CEO: Hayden

First and foremost is Hayden Mark Davis, the most crucial member of Kelsier Ventures and one of the main proponents of the Argentine President's MILER Coin LIBRA. He has recently become a public focal point due to self-exposures and interviews.

In a recent interview "YouTuber Interviews LIBRA Creator: I Am Also a Victim," Hayden admitted that the team had attempted to "snipe" rug-pull funds, hoping to control market volatility. He firmly stated that the LIBRA collapse was a "failed plan" rather than a "rug pull," and the team did not directly profit from the MELANIA token.

Currently, Hayden still holds approximately $100 million in funds. He said he is considering how to handle these funds, with options including refunds, reinjection of funds into the market, or donating them to a non-profit organization in Argentina. However, he refuses to immediately hand over the funds, believing that as a "steward," he has leverage to negotiate with the Argentine government. He emphasized that the Milei team did not provide him with any specific instructions, so he must decide on the final destination of the funds himself.

Although Hayden claims to be a "serial entrepreneur," he is relatively unknown on the internet, with only 35 connections on his LinkedIn account.

According to his LinkedIn profile, since October 2020, he has been the CEO of Kelsier, residing in Los Angeles, California, USA. Also, since May of the same year, he became the founder of Luxury Drip, an ambiguously positioned company (although there is an Italian brand of the same name, belonging to the urban fashion sector).

According to Davis, he has been an entrepreneur since August 2017, operating a company called Leaders Elevate. This appears to be another family business of the Davis family, with his father as the main mentor, selling courses and private coaching on leadership topics.

Although there is a striking difference in appearance between the photos, it does indeed appear to be the same person:

After Javier Milei uploaded a photo with Hayden Davis, the public had many questions about this almost unknown entrepreneur. Searching for Hayden Mark Davis yielded results mainly focusing on the news about the LIBRA collapse.

Hayden and Mile's Photo

The only other social activity associated with him is a photo from February 2022, where he appears with two individuals named Thomas Davis and Gideon Davis, who are respectively listed as the co-founder and CEO of Kelsier Ventures. Little is known about these two individuals.

Currently, all of his personal social media accounts have been set to private.

Dad Chair: Tom

In contrast, their father Tom Davis has led a more dramatic life and has left more traces on the internet.

In Tom's own words, his childhood was anything but ordinary, with his biological father absent and a stepfather who was an abusive alcoholic military man. At the age of 18, Tom experienced a serious suicide crisis. Later on, Tom caught the attention of the FBI for identity fraud. Faced with the charges, Tom chose to come clean, even disclosing some criminal acts that the FBI was not yet aware of. This full disclosure shocked investigators, and in the end, he was sentenced to a year in federal prison instead of the expected 60 to 70 years.

After serving his sentence, Tom started life anew. He became a youth pastor and actively engaged in charitable work. Tom Davis wears many hats—he is an entrepreneur, speaker, writer, humanitarian, and served as the CEO of Children's HopeChest for 15 years. This is a charity organization focused on helping orphans and widows globally. However, he later stepped down from this position to start an online course called Leaders Elevate, aiming to cultivate the leadership, personal growth, and development of CEOs.

Aside from his charity work, he has authored five published books, including: "Fields of the Fatherless," "Red Letters," "Confessions of a Good Christian Guy," and two novels, "Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World" and "Priceless." Additionally, he has contributed articles to 25 national publications and is currently working on his doctoral thesis, researching the impact of positive psychology on dynamic team structures.

As mentioned earlier, in Episode 9 of the brother duo podcast "Young Dumb & Woke" featuring Hayden Davis and his brother Gideon Davis, the two brothers interviewed their father Tom Davis, where he shared how he got into the crypto industry:

As one of three partners of a chain of restaurants on the East Coast of the United States, his chain operated 34 restaurants along the East Coast. To seek a broader market, he decided to expand the business to the Middle East and registered a company in Dubai.

During his time in Dubai, Tom stumbled upon an article about Dubai's plans to establish the world's third "Crypto Valley." Previously, similar Crypto Valleys had been established in Switzerland and Malaysia with the aim of attracting blockchain, digital asset, and crypto industry companies through tax incentives and innovation policies. The article sparked his inspiration, leading him to consider founding a blockchain company in Dubai, which he swiftly acted upon.

Soon enough, Tom delved deep into the crypto industry. Not only did he actively participate in related conferences, but he also successfully launched his own cryptocurrency project (Tom did not disclose the specific project name). Additionally, he began connecting with key figures in the field, building his network, and ventured into venture capital funds, investing in multiple early-stage projects. Today, these investments have not only integrated him into the industry but also positioned him in leadership roles in some projects.

Although Tom has removed much of his information related to Kelsier Ventures, we can still trace some past traces. Initially, Tom also referred to himself as the CEO of Kelsier Ventures.

More direct evidence lies in the last 10 minutes of this podcast episode, where Tom finally mentioned Kelsier Ventures: "What excites me even more is that this venture doesn't just belong to me personally but is a family business."

This has been his vision all along, to build an "empire" with his sons, akin to House Venture. Today, this dream is gradually becoming a reality. He and his family have collectively entered the crypto industry, and while their fund has not yet reached the scale of top global hedge funds, they have been able to participate in significant projects in Dubai. Tom has now officially become a resident of Dubai.

COO's Brother: Gideon

Next up is Hayden's brother, Gideon Davis. In the family business Kelsier Ventures, Gideon Davis serves as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), responsible for the company's daily operations and investment management.

Although there is relatively little public information about him, through breadcrumbs on social media and past podcast records, we can outline his involvement in projects in the crypto industry. In 2022, Gideon was still a junior in college, but he had already started delving into the crypto industry, working on the DeFi project Unlock and its metaverse project NeoNexus.

NeoNexus NFT Series

NeoNexus is a metaverse project built on the Solana blockchain, planning to offer NFTs for virtual real estate, characters, vehicles, and accessories, and has designed a governance token system. The project once claimed to have sold 4,000 sets of "virtual real estate" NFTs, with plans to release another 6,000 sets of real estate-related NFTs and launch corresponding governance and utility tokens.

However, on March 21, 2022, NeoNexus founder Jack Shi suddenly announced the project's shutdown due to "insufficient funds" and laid off all employees, stating a willingness to hand over the project to the community.

This "soft rug" event sparked significant skepticism in the crypto community at the time: it was estimated that since September 2021, NeoNexushad raised approximately 25,000 SOL in NFT form, with fundraising amounts ranging from approximately $3.425 million to $6.475 million based on the SOL price at the time. However, the project suddenly declared in March 2022 that the funds had been depleted and it could not continue operations.

Rumors of Political Connections

Looking at this, although the Davis family all have experience and resources in the crypto industry, it seems they still lack some "strength" to handle issuing coins for the U.S. First Lady and the Argentinian President.

In a further investigation by BlockBeats, we have uncovered two unconfirmed political relationship rumors:

1. Hayden's uncle, who is Tom's brother Glen, is a close friend of Trump. Due to this relationship, the Davis family has established a connection with Trump.

2. Another claim is that Hayden's mother, who is Tom's wife Emily Chynoweth Davis, is a close friend of US President Trump's wife Melania. The Davis family, through Kelsier Ventures, has issued NFT cards and the $MELANIA coin for Melania.

Other Interest Chains

Kelsier Ventures is not acting alone; it is part of a deeper interest group. Some of the whistleblowers in the event have revealed many truths to us.

Image Source: Chaofan Shou

According to information exposed by Chaofan Shou, the M3M3 Launchpad is actually a crucial platform used by Kelsier Ventures to manipulate memecoins, becoming a breeding ground for a series of token launches. In the entire operational structure, the backstage manipulator Kelsier Ventures is responsible for fund allocation, information leakage, and determining when to launch projects, while its CEO Hayden Davis plays the role of developer and executor. Additionally, Axiom MM may act as a market maker or intermediary, ensuring that market liquidity is manipulated to create price fluctuations, while the M3M3 Launchpad serves as a "white-glove" platform, assisting numerous memecoin projects like ENRON, MELANIA, BOB, M3M3, AIAI, LIBRA, etc., in token issuance. More notably, KIP (a group related to the Millet government of Argentina) may provide political support, sheltering the organization's operations in the Argentine market.

M3M3 Launchpad

M3M3 Launchpad is a memecoin launch platform that assists in coin launches. It gained exposure through DefiTuna founder Moty and the Solana community. The M3M3 Launchpad pretended to be an independent platform, but in fact, it was fully controlled by Meteora co-founder Ben and used by Kelsier Ventures as a tool to manipulate memecoin prices.

Therefore, it is not surprising that on December 5, 2024, Meteora's blog suddenly introduced the M3M3 Launchpad project.

The first token launched by M3M3 Launchpad was $M3M3. Its price trend was almost a replica of $MELANIA and $LIBARA.

“Do not buy $M3M3! It is completely controlled by insiders!” Community members had issued warnings before the vested interests were exposed.

In addition, DefiTuna founder Moty revealed that over $200 million was siphoned off by insiders across multiple memecoin projects, including several tokens launched on the M3M3 Launchpad: $AIAI, $MATES, $ENRON, etc. Projects like $AIAI and $MATES were particularly noteworthy as their prices plummeted by 95% shortly after launch, leaving community investors penniless. The first batch of projects on the memecoin issuance platform, including $M3M3, also suffered a 95% drop.

With these various project tokens, Kelsier Ventures and its manipulation team pocketed over $200 million in profits, as disclosed by DefiTuna founder Moty.

DefiTuna was originally a DeFi platform. On January 16, 2025, Kelsier Ventures invested $30,000 in it and, through employee Thomas, hoped that DefiTuna would provide liquidity for M3M3.

Among the Kelsier Ventures team members mentioned earlier, Thomas is also part of the team and is ranked only behind Hayden, Tom, and Gideon, indicating his importance and deep involvement.

Under Kelsier's pressure, projects on M3M3 allocated tokens to DefiTuna, with DefiTuna's co-founder Vlad passively participating without noticing any issues. Kelsier further demanded that DefiTuna manage liquidity on M3M3, including the MATES project, which experienced a 95% price crash after listing.

However, as DefiTuna uncovered more suspicious activities during its operations, they realized that M3M3 was not a true "decentralized launchpad" but a tool Kelsier used for market manipulation. The most controversial event occurred during the MELANIA token issuance:

1. Kelsier Leaked Insider Information
Prior to the MELANIA token issuance, Kelsier informed DefiTuna that Melania's official X account would tweet about it, and Trump would retweet, helping hype the coin's price.

2. Secret Transfer of 1% of Tokens
Kelsier sent 1% of the MELANIA token supply to DefiTuna (worth $100 million at its peak) to be used for "liquidity management."

3. Hayden Davis Instructed Vlad to Conduct Anonymous Sales
Hayden Davis further instructed Vlad to anonymously sell these tokens to avoid on-chain tracing. However, after discussing with DefiTuna's founder Moty, Vlad decided to return all the funds.

Currently, DefiTuna has completely severed all ties with Kelsier Ventures, refunded Kelsier's $30,000 investment, publicly accused Kelsier of manipulating the market through the M3M3 launchpad, and siphoning off large sums of money.

Fund Flow: Axiom MM, Cube Exchange Relationship

In the insider trading network of Kelsier Ventures, the flow of funds is crucial, with Axiom MM and Cube Exchange playing roles in market manipulation, fund washing, and channeling. Although these projects seem unrelated to Kelsier on the surface, on-chain data and community disclosures have revealed their intricate web of vested interests.

Axiom MM is a Market Maker in the Solana ecosystem. In the wake of allegations by DefiTuna founder Moty and community disclosures, Kelsier Ventures may have leveraged Axiom MM for insider trading and market manipulation. During the launch of $LIBRA, $MELANIA, $M3M3, $AIAI, and $MATES, Axiom MM may have been responsible for generating fake trading volume to create a price pump, attracting retail FOMO. When the behind-the-scenes team decided to cash out, Axiom MM may have adjusted its trading strategy to rapidly drain liquidity from the market, thus accelerating a price collapse.

On-chain data reveals that several associated wallets of Axiom MM engaged in a series of "unusual trades" around the $LIBRA launch: minutes before the token's listing, they made significant buys to drive up the initial price; during the peak FOMO, they conducted large sell-offs to take profits; on the eve of the token's collapse, they halted liquidity provision, causing an instant market depth disappearance.

These actions closely align with typical market manipulation strategies, leading the community to question whether Axiom MM has a conflict of interest with Kelsier Ventures.

Cube Exchange is also implicated in this saga. Community findings suggest that Cube Exchange is a client of Kelsier. Kelsier provides consulting, marketing, and KOL resources to Cube Exchange; Hayden Davis (Kelsier CEO) was an early investor in Cube Exchange; and multiple Kelsier-associated wallets engaged in large transactions on Cube Exchange.

"Most of the people in the photo have worked at or been associated with Cube Exchange. Cube Exchange is a client of Kelsier, responsible for consulting, marketing, KOLs, etc. But I'm not sure if they are directly involved in any improper behavior," a community member revealed.

Furthermore, BOOGLE has also been implicated in this scenario. BOOGLE is a ghost-themed NFT project built on Solana, with a total supply of only 100.

However, three members in the incident own BOOGLE and use it as their Twitter avatars. Coupled with the previous mention, Kelsier was involved in financing with BOOGLE in contrast to Bitcoin non-custodial P2P order book service provider Saturn. Therefore, as the Kelsier event unfolds, community members begin to question whether BOOGLE provided cover for insider trading or if there are any vested interests between them.

However, the conspiracy theory has been denied by BOOGLE: "Our shadowy group is not involved with Kelsier or $LIBRA." They did acknowledge that three Kelsier-related members were once NFT holders but stated they have been removed.

The Deep Collusion of Meteora & Jupiter

In the allegations by the founder of DefiTuna, Meteora and Jupiter are believed to be a deeper interest group outside of Kelsier Ventures, deeply intertwined. The following is the founder of DefiTuna, Moty's, disclosure and reasoning with other community members:

In a series of memecoin manipulation events, Meteora is not an innocent third party but a key partner of Kelsier.

Ben Chow himself was deeply involved in Kelsier's M3M3 Launchpad, despite outwardly stating that the platform was "independent," actual control was always in the hands of Meteora and its founding team.

In $LIBRA, $MELANIA, and other memecoin projects, Meteora provided crucial liquidity management, technical support, and assisted Kelsier in market manipulation. For example, in multiple memecoin launches on the M3M3 Launchpad, Meteora was responsible for ensuring that the majority of tokens went to insider traders, while retail investors became the target of the harvest.

It is reported that Meteora was founded by Ben Chow and later acquired by Jupiter. Public records show that Ben Chow is also a co-founder of Jupiter. They are co-founders of each other.

Meanwhile, KOL @Ed_x0101 also tweeted that he has sold all his $JUP holdings on X (Twitter) due to: many rug-pull memecoin projects having direct or indirect ties to Jupiter; Jupiter may be involved in insider trading and market manipulation, and there may even be legal risks; following the collapse of $LIBRA, insider traders were compensated while regular retail investors lost everything.

More importantly, many community members directly pointed out that Kelsier may only be a "glove puppet," and the real mastermind is the Jupiter team and a liquidity management institution.

As the scandal unfolded, Ben Chow announced his resignation from Meteora on February 17, 2025, and clarified that Meteora and himself never held, received, or managed any $LIBRA tokens; in the memecoin project, Meteora only provided IT technical support and did not participate in off-chain token transactions; there was no "special relationship" with Kelsier, only cooperation during M3M3.

However, this move was interpreted by the public as an attempt to disassociate from the Kelsier incident to protect Meteora from regulatory and legal risks affecting the Jupiter ecosystem.

On the Jupiter side, in response to insider trading issues, they hired an independent third-party law firm, Fenwick & West, to conduct an investigation and issue a report.

However, some community members do not trust this law firm because it is FTX's general counsel and has been accused of aiding FTX in fraud. In a joint exposé in 2022, it was mentioned that Fenwick & West was "Justin Sun's favorite law firm" and had previously been involved in the restructuring of Poloniex.

Whether it is Kelsier's manipulation in memecoin issuance, or deep collusion with politicians, market makers, and exchanges, it indicates that this is not just a financial scam in the crypto market but may involve broader vested interests.

In this storm, the credibility of the Solana ecosystem has also faced unprecedented scrutiny. On the one hand, as one of the most popular blockchains since 2024, Solana has rapidly risen due to the prosperity of memecoin trading. However, on the other hand, whether this prosperity supported by memecoin trading is sustainable in the long run has become a focal point of market discussion.

With a series of "rug pull" projects collapsing, is Solana falling into a trap driven by FOMO funds and lacking real-world application support? If market confidence completely collapses, can SOL once again stage a comeback miracle like in 2023-2024, break free from the crisis, and achieve market self-repair? BlockBeats will continue to monitor.

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