When Eli Regalado first heard God speak, he wondered if he was hallucinating. Now he describes it as "a thought that is not my thought." His wife, Kaitlyn, receives divine messages in the shower or while journaling. The couple, who obeyed God's directives to marry, buy a house, and start a marketing firm in Colorado, say God steered them into crypto in 2021.

After Eli's sister gifted them holdings in a digital coin, Eli heard: "Take this to my people for a wealth transfer." Despite no crypto background, they launched INDXcoin, promoting it through evangelical Christian circles. Over 500 people invested more than $3 million. Debbie and Jose Bonilla, retirees in their 70s, withdrew $70,000 from retirement accounts after learning of the coin through a minister and his wife. "We just trusted that their judgment was good," Jose says.

Within a year, the project collapsed. "Poof—the money just evaporated," Debbie said. Eli claims initial apprehension: "I don't know anything about cryptocurrency, and I don't want to be caught up in some church scam." Crypto fraud is surging; Chainalysis reports scammers collected at least $14 billion worldwide in 2025, a 17% increase. The FBI recorded $7.2 billion in US losses.

Fraud thrives because many investors don't understand crypto, and launching coins is easy—over 3 million were minted in August 2026 alone.