Initially, 31-year-old investors and motivational speakers from Miami performed well.
Part of the dough’s appeal to users is a “circulation” where traders borrow their cryptocurrency holdings to buy more of the same assets and then buy more of that new asset as collateral. Each “loop” increases risk, and the dough makes these highly technical transactions as easy as a few strokes.
Lopez paid 5% of the cryptocurrency he had stored in the dough, and co-founder Chase Herro personally showed him how to use the platform and cheer him on, and was made public in a lawsuit between the two men.
“We got rewards for our risk,” Herro wrote. “LFG,” he added, shorthand: “Let’s go the fuck.”
But on July 12, 2024, all of Lopez’s investment disappeared and was stolen by unidentified hackers who made money for about $2.5 million. “We admit our mistakes and are deeply sorry,” the dough said in a postal report published in the Media on July 23, 2024. “We will continue to work hard to protect our users and their assets, learning from this event to enhance our security posture.” Two months later, Herro and co-founder Zak Folkman have resurfaced the world’s free finance and new partners with a brand new cryptocurrency: U.S. President Donald Trump and his three sons Don Jr., Eric and Barron.
Hero and the folk were introduced to President Trump and his two eldest sons by the current Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkov said Trump was fascinated by the two men’s vision of dispersed finances and became a partner in world freedom, where President Trump was listed as “the chief crypto defense lawyer” and his son was “Web3 ambassador.”
Now, Lopez sues Herro for fraud, false statements, breach of trust duties and violations of Florida’s securities laws, seeking compensation and punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees. Lopez did not respond to a request for comment.
Lopez’s attorney, Joseph Pardo, told Reuters in February that Lopez invested heavily in dough based on Herro’s statements, echoing Lopez’s lawsuit filed against Herro in January. Pardo did not respond to requests for other comments.
Herro’s attorneys filed for dismissal or arbitration, calling Lopez a “successful” investor who should understand the risk nature of looping and encryption, and that the hacker has no control. The judge overseeing the case sets a trial date in Miami federal court in April 2026.
“We are proud of the entire team,” Trump’s executive vice president Eric Trump said in an emailed statement, answering questions about Herro and Fockman’s involvement in the dough and their role in the world’s freedom. “They overdo our craziest goals and our current trajectory is simply incredible.”
Reuters’ comments on previously unreported letters in the lawsuit, coupled with interviews with 10 former dough clients and censorship of social media posts, are the first to list how crypto entrepreneurs can connect with the world freely with the old business, a multi-million Crypto Project, a million-dollar Crypto Project, sending tens of millions of Dollears with Trarge of Dollears to Dollears to the Brespares trampresprance.
Before Fonugh Finance, Herro and Folkman were frequent collaborators for online sales and crypto entrepreneurs. Hero once called himself “the off-road bag of the internet” and spoke to investors about making money in cryptocurrencies, saying “I did the legal thing… I don’t give him fucking”; the early days of his career in folks created “Dating Hotter Girls”, which provided advice on how to host women.
However, after the dough collapsed, their world with Trump hit it freely. They cut the company’s revenue to at least $65 million, based on their share of revenue disclosed in the sale of more than $550 million in tokens. Reuters reported that the Trump family’s share of these token sales is about $400 million.
Neither Herro nor Folkman, as well as Herro’s attorney and World Liberty’s spokesperson, responded to requests for comment on the story. Don Jr. and Barron Trump did not respond to requests for comment. The White House Press Office forwarded the issue to the Trump Organization.
World freedom is part of Trump’s family cryptocurrency community, which have expanded during his new administration. These include new crypto exchange funds from Trump Media and Technology Group, a crypto mining business called American Bitcoin and USD1, a $TRUMP MEME COIN, New Crypto exchange funds from Trump Media & Technology Group, a Stablecoin associated with World Liberty’s dollar.
These businesses are testing how to allow U.S. office holders to enrich their norms while in power. In addition to cryptocurrency investment, the Trump family has also unveiled plans for a new Trump hotel in Dubai and opened a new golf course in Qatar. Recently, Trump faced bipartisan criticism for his desire to accept Qatar’s $400 million aircraft.
In January, the Trump Organization announced that the president’s assets would be held by trust funds managed by his children and he would not play a daily role.
“I said we will take care of it’
The thief paid almost all the deposits of the dough, but Folkman and Hero promised to work hard to recover the lost funds. “We won’t stop until everyone is complete,” Folkman wrote in the Telegram channel. On the day of the breach review by Reuters, there were about 2,700 members for dough users.
Lopez’s lawsuit alleges that Herro texted Lopez assured him that he would reimburse him for the nearly 300 Ether tokens he lost, worth about $833,133 at the time.
“I said we’ll take care of it,” Hero wrote. “I asked the team to sort it out. They said they’re given it to them on the weekend.”
These people are known for their frequent online posts about exotic cars and money-making strategies, and they suddenly stopped updating the dough’s telegram chat and X.com accounts. According to three former participants, Herro deleted another telegram group.
Hackers have long troubled cryptocurrencies. According to a report by Chainalysis, a December 1224 report said that the total amount of funds to hack cryptocurrency platforms by hacking was $2.2 billion. In February, cryptocurrency exchange
Bybit was attacked by $1.5 billion in robbery researchers, known as the largest person ever.
Decentralized finance or “defi” platforms like dough that allow people to access financial services such as lending and loans from intermediaries like banks, especially vulnerable to hacking. That’s because they are often new and offer novel features and code that are less combat-tested than large centralized communication.
For users affected by hacking, it is usually the best option to recover stolen cryptocurrencies from the thief themselves using forensic companies or law enforcement – if highly uncertain, because it is difficult to prove legal claims for communication. In any case, once the platform is hacked, users usually don’t reclaim their assets.
“Most of these lawsuits, including Lopez, claim negligence, probably because such claims are less liable than fraud-based claims,” said Jonathan Cogan, attorney for Kobre & Kim.
Post-hackers, crypto platforms and communications are sometimes expected to make users “complete”, but this is not necessarily binding given the subjective nature of the commitment and the lack of formal subjective nature in the user agreement.
“‘The whole can be in the eyes of a lover,” said Joseph Cioffi, a partner at the law firm Davis + Gilbert.
The dough website includes various disclaimers, including that encryption technology is “novel, experimental and speculative” and “has serious uncertainty about its operation, effectiveness and risks”.
However, this language is often not sufficient to protect crypto companies from any liability. “The court can look at the causes of the hack and how it happens, as well as any obligations of the exchange to secure the assets,” Cioffi said.
Even in the cryptocurrency world, looping is considered high-risk as it uses leverage to amplify the bets – potential juicing returns, but also risk greater losses and forced liquidation.
Meir Dolev, CEO of Israel-based crypto security company Cyvers, detected the occurrence of dough hackers, who said the code related to loops was the reason hackers exploited to destroy the dough system. “They implement complex, high-risk strategies such as looping and floating without adequate safeguards, which shows that they are taking too much risk,” Dolph said via email.
Dough’s postal research report acknowledges the same root cause as the Cyter. The dough added that precautions will be taken, including auditing its code and enhancing security through monitoring.
According to Crypto Tracker Defilama, the dough website is now effectively closed, locked behind a password with little to no assets.
“Nothing is worth it”
On July 23, the dough announced in the media that approximately $281,000 of the stolen crypto assets had been recovered by professional anti-hacking clothing SEAS 911, and that the funds will be distributed to investors on a pro-Rata basis.
In September, a dough account sent a total of about $180,000 worth of Ether Crypto coins to 134 digital wallets, an analysis by Crypto Security Company Certik showed. It is not clear how to choose the accounts; eight dough users told Reuters that they did not receive payments.
It is not clear what Lopez gains for dough-related losses, if any. Lopez said on January 27 that Herro had “rejected” the signal he promised to repay Lopez’s nearly 300 ether coins.
Ten victims of the dough hacker contacted by Reuters spoke in anonymous condition. One user said he lost about $150,000 worth of ether, saying he was frustrated by the lack of communication and reported the hack to the FBI. He said he never heard from the FBI or Herro. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
In August, Dough also announced that it would release proprietary tokens comparable to the remaining missing funds, which could be exchanged for Ether if any other assets were recovered.
“What should I do?” he said, saying the dough user of millions of dough tokens he received after the hack. Unless the dough gets more money, “it doesn’t matter.”
So far, no additional recovery rates have been announced.
An unnamed Polish 25-year-old man told Reuters that most of his life savings (about $12,000) entered the dough platform around May 2024. His account swelled to about $25,000 during the hacking period, and he said he shared his communications with Herro and Found Meless via direct information on X.com.
The last time he heard from the dough was a direct message from January 13. “We should have a solution this week,” he wrote to a Polish man who said he never received any tokens, ether or other compensation.
A few days later, on January 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration, Herro and Folkman were found in Washington, D.C. to celebrate on their black tie.
