Imagine watching a career scammer smile into a camera, speaking with total confidence, convincing a fresh wave of victims to believe the same recycled promises that bankrupted the last batch.

That’s exactly what happened during Stephen McCullah’s AMA #9, where he tried to breathe new life into his latest fantasy project — GRAPE (Grap3.com) — the so-called “iPhone of blockchain.”

I’m Danny de Hek, a New Zealand investigative journalist featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The Guardian. For years, I’ve tracked and exposed international crypto and MLM frauds, saving victims from tens of millions in losses. I previously documented McCullah’s failed ventures — Apollo Blockchain, Knox Wire, and LunaOne, where more than 11 000 investors lost their funds. Now he’s back, repackaging the same lies under a new name, pretending it’s innovation.

In AMA #9, McCullah promises astronomical liquidity, AI-generated apps, and exchange listings “any week now.” But once you strip away the jargon, it’s pure pump-and-dump theatre — fantasy funding, invisible partners, and timelines that never arrive.

The Same Old Playbook

McCullah’s formula never changes:

  1. Announce an imminent “mega-launch.”
  2. Anchor a token price before there’s a market.
  3. Inflate excitement with fake partnerships and moving goalposts.
  4. Vanish when investors start asking for receipts.

AMA #9 is just the latest rerun of that playbook — promising $100 million in liquidity, a mainnet “next week,” and AI miracles that don’t exist.

Bottom Line

Stephen’s AMA #9 repeats the same cycle: push an imminent launch, hide specifics, float fantasy funding, dangle exchange/adoption talk, and kick hard dates “to next week.”
Nearly every material claim is (a) contradicted by earlier AMAs and the roadmap, (b) unverifiable, or (c) technically impossible.

1 – The $100 Million Free-Zone Fairy Tale

AMA 9 (00:23 – 04:42)
Claims a treaty-based “free zone” will underpin $100–$300 million in launch liquidity via “land deal” deposits investors supposedly “control.”

Reality:

  • No jurisdiction, treaty, bank, or escrow defined.
  • “Free zone” was first hyped as pre-listing “icing on the cake,” now delayed to 2026 but somehow essential to launch.
  • “Locked liquidity you control” is a contradiction — if investors control it, it isn’t locked; if it’s locked, they don’t.

Classic float theatre disguised as infrastructure.

2 – Mainnet Always “Next Week”

AMA 9 (05:20 – 05:59)
“We’re this close… hoping by next week we can give the week of mainnet.”

Contradiction:
Earlier AMAs said Q4 2025 and claimed they were ahead of schedule. Months later, still no repos, explorers, audits, or benchmarks — just the same dangling carrot.

3 – AI-Generated Apps, Games & Smart Contracts

AMA 9 (01:12 – 02:06, 15:38 – 18:58)
Promises thousands of apps, “LinkedIn-level” websites, and games written from natural-language prompts by year-end.

Reality:
No demos, partners, or technical evidence. Auto-generating smart contracts without human review is unsafe; claiming enterprise-grade sites from prompts is absurd.

4 – Token Migration Shape-Shifting

AMA 9 (07:18 – 08:52)
Now says migration will be “seamless and decentralized.”

Earlier: manual, custodial swaps on a timer (“send to us, we send back”).

Reality: No audited bridge, no Merkle proofs, no vesting plan — just new wording to disguise the same control.

5 – GGT/GRP Merge Confusion

Keeps toggling between “separate coins” and “merged tokens.” This ticker churn muddies accountability while preserving his control over minting and swaps.

6 – EVM Compatibility vs. Performance Hype

Claims GRAPE is both EVM-standard and “faster than anything ever built.” EVM parity doesn’t equal new consensus performance. No specs, no design papers — only slogans.

7 – Knox Wire Resurrection

Says he’ll “reset up Knox Wire” on GRAPE for cross-border settlement. Knox Wire previously had no verified bank partners or rails. Recycling a failed brand isn’t innovation.

8 – “95 % Positive” on CoinMarketCap

Boasts about a 95 % rating but cites no listing or methodology. Ratings can be brigaded; adoption is measured by transactions and dev activity — both = zero.

9 – The Phantom Partners

Refers to “AI partners,” “dev meetings,” and “current exchanges” — never names a single one.
Tell: announce the existence of announcements. Zero receipts.

10 – E-Government & Banking Utopia

Promises instant citizenship, corporate registration, and banking via an 11-department e-government “once the treaty’s signed.” No country, no regulator, no infrastructure. Pure fantasy.

11 – Price Anchoring Reborn

Claims a $100 per coin listing price, despite earlier lightpapers listing $25 and tariffs/locks.
Markets discover prices; promoters who set them are manipulating sentiment.

Quick Rebuttal Summary

  • Liquidity fairy tale: $100 M–$300 M “land-collateralized” free zone — no treaty, no bank, no escrow.
  • Dates always next week: Mainnet perpetually “just around the corner.”
  • AI hype with zero code: “LinkedIn-level websites this quarter” — not a line of proof.
  • Swap story keeps changing: From manual swaps to “trustless and seamless,” no contracts released.
  • Unnamed partners: “AI partner,” “dev meetings,” “current exchanges” — none verified.
  • Regulatory cosplay: Promised e-gov and banking in 2026 with no jurisdiction.
  • Old scams, new wrapper: Knox Wire rebadged.
  • CMC chest-beating: “95 % positive” = marketing, not metrics.

Why It Matters

McCullah continues to exploit the same investor base he burned during LunaOne’s collapse, handing victims worthless “credit tokens” as hush-payments for projects that will never launch. After divorcing and moving back to Missouri, he has now married Ashley McCullah, a hair salon owner from The Betty, and is using this new marriage and image to appear legitimate while quietly rebooting the same scams under the GRAPE (Grap3.com) banner. The pattern is identical — recycled promises, fake liquidity, and a trail of victims left chasing money that will never return.

His Telegram outburst calling me a “parasite” and claiming “arrests soon” isn’t evidence of authority action; it’s intimidation theatre. If he had legal standing, he’d file papers, not memes.

The public deserves to see through this cycle of deception. GRAPE isn’t a revolution — it’s LunaOne 2.0 with a new coat of paint.

Disclaimer: How This Investigation Was Conducted

This investigation relies entirely on OSINT — Open Source Intelligence — meaning every claim made here is based on publicly available records, archived web pages, corporate filings, domain data, social media activity, and open blockchain transactions. No private data, hacking, or unlawful access methods were used. OSINT is a powerful and ethical tool for exposing scams without violating privacy laws or overstepping legal boundaries.

About the Author

I’m DANNY DE HEK, a New Zealand–based YouTuber, investigative journalist, and OSINT researcher. I name and shame individuals promoting or marketing fraudulent schemes through my channel, DANNY DE HEK INVESTIGATIONS. Every video I produce exposes the people behind scams, Ponzi schemes, and MLM frauds — holding them accountable in public.

My PODCAST is an extension of that work. It’s distributed across 18 major platforms — including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, and iHeartRadio — so when scammers try to hide, my content follows them everywhere. If you prefer listening to my investigations instead of watching, you’ll find them on every major podcast service.

You can BOOK ME for private consultations or SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, where I share first-hand experience from years of exposing large-scale fraud and helping victims recover.

“Stop losing your future to financial parasites. Subscribe. Expose. Protect.”

My work exposing crypto fraud has been featured in: