Circle, the issuer of $74 billion stablecoin USDC, has shared a promotional photo of music producer DJ Khaled sporting the new USDC-sponsored Chelsea FC shirt, with CEO Jeremy Allaire posting “welcome to team USDC.”

This is despite Khaled’s history of undisclosed shilling of crypto projects, which landed him in trouble with the SEC back in 2018.

Circle really hired the guy who was charged with promoting one of the only ICO scams that was so stupid, so blatantly fraudulent, so criminal that it was written up in NYTimes and then promptly prosecuted by DOJ *and* SEC???????https://t.co/a7rAMIU5WU https://t.co/nMz60TK50R

The charges in question relate to Centra Tech, a $25 million ICO which landed one co-founder in prison for eight years and another for one year. A third, who cooperated with authorities, later appeared in a Netflix documentary about the scam.

A November 2018 SEC press release details how Khaled, real name Khaled Khaled, alongside boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., settled with the SEC after “failing to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in ICOs.”

Khaled’s role reportedly involved telling his X followers to “get yours before they sell out, I got mine…”

In the SEC’s first charges relating to “touting” ICOs, it claims that Khaled was paid $50,000 from Centra Tech. Mayweather received $100,000, plus another $200,000 from two other ICOs.

“Without admitting or denying the findings,” the duo paid settlements of approximately $153,000 and $615,000, respectively, with Khaled agreeing not to promote any “securities, digital or otherwise,” for two years.

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