BlockDAG’s $433M Presale in Crisis After ZachXBT Links Founder to Past Scams

The $433 million presale of blockchain project BlockDAG may be facing a major credibility crisis after on-chain investigator ZachXBT alleged that the person behind the project might not be its publicly presented CEO and could have ties to previous crypto ￰1￱ dispute began earlier this week when BlockDAG’s official X account posted a promotional message titled “The VALUE ERA Starts Tomorrow — A Message From Our CEO, Antony Turner.” The VALUE ERA Starts Tomorrow A Message From Our CEO, Antony Turner A New Era is Upon Us We’ve conquered the Power Era. We’ve dominated the Dominance ￰2￱ we enter the most important phase yet: The VALUE ERA Tomorrow, BlockDAG makes 3 MAJOR… ￰3￱ — BlockDAG Network (@blockdagnetwork) October 28, 2025 In the post, Turner declared the beginning of a new phase for the project, promising “scarcity, fairness, and real value” while revealing that all presale bonuses would end, final tokenomics would be published, and an official presale end date would be ￰4￱ urged investors to make “final purchases” before what he described as “the moment everything shifts.” Shortly after the announcement, ZachXBT, known for exposing crypto scams and fraudulent ventures, responded publicly.

A $430M Presale and an Alleged Hidden Founder — What’s Really Going On at BlockDAG? ZachXBT claimed that BlockDAG’s supposed CEO was merely a paid frontman for Gurhan Kiziloz, a British entrepreneur previously linked to failed fintech and crypto ventures. “Stop your lies,” Zach wrote. “The grifter Gurhan Kiziloz is the real co-founder secretly behind BlockDAG, paying people like Antony Turner to be the face while transferring millions in presale funds from retail investors via Middle Eastern OTC brokers.” Stop your lies the grifter Gurhan Kiziloz is the real co-founder secretly behind Blockdag who pays people like Antony Turner to be the face of it while transferring away millions in presale funds from unsophisticated retail investors via Middle Eastern OTC ￰5￱ — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 29, 2025 ZachXBT later added that BlockDAG blocked him on X and deleted his replies, stating, “Update: BlockDAG Network blocked me and hid my reply naming the actual founder.” When asked for evidence, he cited offshore entity documents and claimed that the name “Gurhan Kiziloz” was banned in BlockDAG’s Telegram group, where any mention allegedly results in automatic deletion or user restriction. >Offshore entity documents > ‘Gurhan Kiziloz’ is a banned word in the Blockdag Telegram group and it gets immediately deleted / restricted — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 29, 2025 The allegations come as questions surrounding BlockDAG’s legitimacy ￰6￱ project, which claims to merge Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology with Proof-of-Work mining for higher scalability, has drawn attention for its unusually long-running ￰7￱ scheduled to end in June, then delayed to August, the token launch is now postponed ￰8￱ Chance!

BDAG Launching 28th of March! Exclusive access, massive opportunities, and a 400% boost! Time is running out! The highly anticipated BDAG Test Net Final launch is happening on March 28th along side our Keynote 3 , and this is your final opportunity to be… ￰9￱ — BlockDAG Network (@blockdagnetwork) February 27, 2025 Despite claiming to have raised more than $430 million since early 2024, the project has yet to deliver a mainnet or confirm any exchange ￰10￱ about misleading marketing have also ￰11￱ July, BlockDAG announced that its presale would end on August 11 at a token price of $0.0016, calling it the “last chance” for ￰12￱ LAUNCH release — PRESALE ENDING FAST!

We’re not slowing ￰13￱ we’re aiming for ￰14￱ domination — targeting: Coinbase — America’s largest crypto marketplace Gemini — security & compliance at the highest level ￰0￱ — global… ￰15￱ — BlockDAG Network (@blockdagnetwork) August 12, 2025 However, months later, tokens are still being sold at lower prices, and the presale ￰16￱ suggest this could be a deliberate tactic to sustain hype and attract new investors while avoiding a public ￰17￱ Gaps, Presale Delays, and User Complaints Cast Shadow on BlockDAG’s Operations BlockDAG’s official materials state that the project is operated by DAG Systems Ltd., registered in ￰18￱ team is led by Antony Turner, a fintech entrepreneur, along with CTO Jeremy Harkness and security expert ￰19￱ ￰20￱ company’s website claims that the project has been audited by Halborn and CertiK, though both firms reportedly reviewed only the vesting contracts and not the mainnet ￰21￱ project’s whitepaper outlines ambitious technical goals, including 10,000 transactions per second and an EVM-compatible launchpad for decentralized ￰22￱ also details its token allocation: 50% to miners, 33.3% to presale participants, and just 1% to the ￰23￱ team has promoted a “road to Binance listing,” but no official exchange partnerships have been confirmed.) in 2020 for operating without ￰24￱ FCA warning was later retracted, but the company continued to face allegations of mismanagement, unpaid wages, fake reviews, and toxic workplace ￰25￱ was also involved in the cryptocurrency project Big Eyes Coin, a meme token that raised over $40 million in 2023 before collapsing shortly after ￰26￱ accused the team of misleading marketing, lack of transparency, and failing to deliver purchased ￰27￱ fintech, Kiziloz heads Nexus International Holdings, which runs the crypto-integrated online casino brand Spartans(.)com and operates gaming platforms such as ￰28￱ these ventures have generated significant revenue, his history in both crypto and fintech has drawn scrutiny due to repeated controversies and questions about investor ￰29￱ of mid-October, BlockDAG continues to promote its “Value Era” marketing campaign, insisting that it is entering a new phase of development.

However, the timing of ZachXBT’s revelations has cast serious doubt over the project’s leadership and the integrity of its presale.