SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A San Diego man said he put all his retirement money into a crypto platform only to have it disappear.
Now, a state financial watchdog agency said the company where that man and thousands of others invested wasn’t license to operate in California at the time.
Joe White spent a long career working for several start-up companies.
“I think it’s over 10 startups that I worked at, and then it’s like a numbers game, and then finally I got a good exit,” White said.
He used the money he earned to invest and plan for retirement.
“I learned about Nexo from Reddit, and then a co-worker introduced me to them,” he added.
Nexo is a digital platform for crypto that advertises it helps users “grow your wealth.”
White thought his money would be safe in what Nexo called a “Crypto Credit Line.” With crypto-backed credit lines, borrowers can take out loans backed by their crypto instead of selling it off. According to Nexo’s website, you can then repay “whenever you want, in any amount and at your own pace."
In 2021, White said he transferred his crypto investments to Nexo, which operates several entities.
It says on its website, the credit line can be used “as part of a longer-term strategy.”
White said he put his life savings into Nexo. He showed ABC 10News at least one bank wire transfer to Nexo in the amount of $1 million. He doesn’t have records of all his transactions and that became part of the problem.
White said he would occasionally withdraw money for normal living expenses, but by 2023, he said he lost nearly all the money he put in.
He said the investment was something a lot more volatile than he realized.
Essentially, if the crypto’s value dropped below a certain level, Nexo could liquidate it
That’s what White said happened with his account. He has an active open complaint with California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation alleging this.
“Think about if you have a home equity line and the value of your house drops due to market conditions, you don't expect to lose your house, right? But that's what happened,” White said. “The market dropped, which happens. It goes up and down, but I didn't know I was subject to that, so I didn't think about it being a problem.”
He didn't realize liquidation could be one of the outcomes.
White said he reported what happened to him to numerous agencies, including the DFPI, the District Attorney's Office, and the Federal Trade Commission.
The DFPI found Nexo Captial violated state laws, including offering crypto-backed loans and services without a valid license in California.
In January 2026, it issued a consent order, which is an agreement with the company. It said the company conducted unlicensed finance lending activity.
The DFPI wrote that Nexo violated the law by “contracting for and originating loans with 5,456 California residents” without the proper license between 2018 and 2022.
If the market value of the crypto collateral drops, the DFPI said Nexo Capital could "automatically liquidate" it. The order doesn't name any specific investors, but White said what it describes is what happened to him.
“It’s been incredibly hard for a long time. I dealt with it myself, only recently to ask my sister to help me because it was just too much, and after three years it literally almost killed me,” White said.
He showed ABC 10News a screenshot from his account from November 2021. His portfolio balance grew to as much as $6 million. Now, he said he has nothing besides his family. White’s sister was with him during the entirety of the interview.
“I try to be a caretaker for my parents, but the impact of this is that I can’t care for my parents like I want to. My daughter’s been lending me money to help pay for my parents, and my parents had to take on renters and spare bedrooms. It’s just been really tough,” White said, getting emotional as he talked about his family.
The DFPI fined Nexo half a million dollars. According to the consent order, the company “neither admits nor denies” the findings.
A Nexo spokesperson said the consent order relates to “legacy issues from an earlier phase of the business in 2022” and was resolved through a settlement.
“After resolving this, Nexo is keeping its California license,” the spokesperson added in a written statement to ABC 10News.
When asked about White’s situation, the spokesperson said “detailed risk disclosures are presented across all product offerings and client-facing materials.”
The spokesperson also said the credit line product is not currently available in California but that it does include clear guidance about the risks.
White’s biggest obstacle to recovering any money is that he can’t access his records from the company. He hoped to file legal action and contacted lawyers, but it became too expensive.
Nexo has several entities worldwide. White said that makes it confusing to investors. When trying to get his financial records, he discovered Nexo Capital is based in the Cayman Islands.
Nexo’s financial products have faced regulatory action all across the country. The SEC also took action against the company. In 2023, Nexo agreed to pay a $22.5 million penalty to settle the charges of failing to register one of its crypto products, “bypassing essential disclosure requirements designed to protect investors.”
Ashley Russo, a San Diego wealth management advisor, said crypto can be uncertain.
“Anything can happen when things aren’t fully regulated or they’re newer trends,” Russo said.
She added people need to proceed with caution when getting into crypto, especially for retirement.
“Crypto is associated with volatility with it being a newer asset in the marketplace, so do we want to put something that we depend on, we need to know is there, do we want to take on that level of risk?” Russo said.
White doesn't know if he'll ever see his money again.
“The company that I’m dealing with has structured their operations in a way to make it very hard when something goes wrong,” White said. “The takeaways here are: Be careful.”
Nexo has been around since 2018. According to its website, it has processed more than $430 billion.
