Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned that Nigerians who invest in Punisher Coin, also known as SPUN ($PUN), are at risk of losing their hard-earned money.
The investment regulatory agency disclosed that its investigation showed that Punisher Coin is a meme coin, which is characterised by pump and dump schemes. The SEC also said that the promoters of SPUN are not authorised to operate in the Nigerian capital market.
Part of the SEC statement read:
“Any attributed value to meme coin is usually linked to its promoters or the community effort which most often than not are susceptible to pump and dump schemes (a form of fraudulent activity that involves promoters spreading false or misleading information to create a buying frenzy that ‘pumps’ up the price of a ‘coin’ and then ‘dumps’ the coin by selling their own coins at the inflated price).”
The agency specifically stated that PUNISHER COIN ($PUN) is a meme coin. “Meme coins generally have no use case, intrinsic value or tangible projects backing them,” it said.
How they operate
It warned Nigerians to be wary of online publications advertising $PUN for presale, saying they only use hype to lure investors. After they’ve gathered a tangible number of investors, the promoters dump their coins and stop the hype — the coin’s price “typically falls and investors lose money.”
It urged Nigerians to always verify the authenticity of any investment, as well as authorised fintechs and licensed crypto/digital asset operators in Nigeria, on its dedicated portal before putting their hard-earned money into such ventures.
Crypto-related Ponzi schemes have been on the rise among Nigerians in recent times. In early May 2025, the SEC warned Nigerians against investing in tofro.com, which it described as an illegal investment platform posing as a cryptocurrency trading website.
In 2024, Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX), a Ponzi scheme digital trading platform, lured Nigerians into investing, and by April 2025, the platform crashed. Investors were said to have lost billions of Naira on the platform.