“The most dangerous scams don’t promise riches — they promise that everything is ‘just about to launch.’”

Imagine watching the same story unfold in slow motion. The same speaker. The same confidence. The same promises, delivered with just enough technical jargon to sound credible, and just enough optimism to keep people from asking hard questions.

That is what has played out across Stephen McCullah’s AMA #9 through AMA #17, a sequence of public videos intended to revive belief in his latest crypto venture, GRAPE (Grap3.com). What makes this series important is not any single claim, but what happens when all of them are examined together.

Using AI-assisted cross-referencing, every transcript from AMA #9 through AMA #17 has now been analysed side by side — dates, promises, explanations, excuses, and revisions. When you strip away the hype, a clear pattern emerges: delivery is always imminent, but never arrives; explanations always sound plausible, but never produce evidence; and responsibility is always displaced — onto the market, timing, critics, or external forces.

This blog exists to document that pattern in plain English.

Who Stephen McCullah is — and why history matters

Stephen McCullah is not a first-time founder navigating early-stage delays. He has a documented history of failed and collapsed crypto ventures, including Apollo Blockchain, Knox Wire, and LunaOne. LunaOne alone left more than 11,000 investors holding worthless tokens after the project imploded.

Following that collapse, victims were issued so-called “credit tokens” — assets with no real liquidity or market — widely understood by investors as hush-payments, designed to delay backlash rather than compensate losses.

After a divorce and relocation back to Missouri, McCullah has since remarried. His new public image — a reset, a fresh start — coincides neatly with the launch of GRAPE, marketed as the “iPhone of blockchain.” The branding is new. The playbook is not.

How blockchain jargon is used to keep people believing

For readers unfamiliar with crypto, it’s important to understand how easily technical language can be weaponised.

Most investors do not know how blockchains are built, audited, or launched. That gap allows promoters to use phrases like “mainnet,” “liquidity,” “AI-generated smart contracts,” “on-chain governance,” and “enterprise-grade infrastructure” without ever proving those things exist.

In legitimate projects, these claims are backed by:

  • Public code repositories
  • Independent audits
  • Named partners
  • Verifiable transaction activity
  • Clear, immutable timelines

Across nine consecutive AMAs, GRAPE provides none of these — only explanations for why they’re about to appear.

The moving target: Listings, prices, and “confidence”

From AMA #9 onward, McCullah repeatedly anchors investor expectations to specific price levels. At various points, he claims GRP will list at $100, later asserts it will never be below $15, and repeatedly frames these numbers as confidence, not speculation.

This is not how markets work.

Prices are discovered through supply, demand, liquidity, and participation — not declared in advance by founders. When a promoter states price outcomes as near-certainties, it functions as psychological anchoring, not analysis.

As AMAs progress, something telling happens. When earlier price claims become untenable, the narrative shifts:

  • Listings are still coming, but now market conditions are to blame
  • If prices are lower, it’s “okay,” because future announcements will fix it
  • Confidence remains absolute, even as the plan changes

The certainty never weakens. Only the explanation does.

The free zone that is always essential — until it isn’t

One of the most striking inconsistencies across AMAs #9–#17 is the so-called “free zone.”

At different times, it is described as:

  • Fully on track and funded
  • Delayed due to Bitcoin’s price
  • Essential for holding price
  • Optional but ideal
  • Imminent but confidential
  • A future catalyst after listing

What never changes is this: no jurisdiction is named, no treaty is published, no bank or escrow is identified, and no third-party confirmation exists.

Investors are told the free zone will underpin massive liquidity, yet also told that liquidity can exist without it. These two statements cannot both be true.

AI, apps, games — always coming, never shown

Across multiple AMAs, McCullah promises:

  • AI-generated websites
  • AI-generated smart contracts
  • AI-generated games
  • NFT marketplaces created “instantly”
  • Apps built from prompts without developers

For non-technical readers, this is a red flag. Smart contracts handle money. Auto-generating them without human review is not just unrealistic — it’s dangerous.

Despite the scale of these claims:

  • No live demos are shown
  • No audits are published
  • No repositories are shared
  • No customers are identified

Each AMA introduces more capability, not less — even as previous features remain unreleased. This is feature inflation, not progress.

Governance, votes, and control theatre

When pressure mounts, governance is introduced as reassurance. Investors are told they can vote on decisions, petition changes, and influence direction through GGT.

Yet critically, votes are only mentioned after plans change, never before decisions are made. Governance is framed as empowerment, but functions as retrospective justification.

Real decentralised governance is transparent, scheduled, and binding. What’s described here is conditional and discretionary.

Intimidation, deflection, and the parasite narrative

As scrutiny increased, McCullah publicly referred to me as a “parasite”, claimed arrests were imminent, and implied legal consequences — without filing a single document.

This is not how legitimate legal action works.

If he had standing, evidence, or authority backing him, the response would be legal filings — not Telegram posts and memes. This behaviour is intimidation theatre, designed to silence critics and reassure followers.

LunaOne never ended — it was renamed

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 never launched.

After divorcing and returning to Missouri, he has now married Ashley McCullah, a hair salon owner from The Betty, and is using this new image to appear legitimate while quietly rebooting the same schemes under the GRAPE (Grap3.com) banner.

The pattern is identical:

  • Grand visions
  • Technical jargon
  • Moving deadlines
  • Blame shifting
  • Fresh hope injected just before accountability

Why this matters — and what investors should do

Many people still watching these AMAs are not greedy. They are trapped by hope. Admitting the truth would mean admitting the money is gone.

But closure matters more than belief.

If you have invested, you are entitled to:

  • Ask for written explanations
  • Request transaction records
  • Demand timelines in writing
  • Refuse further deposits
  • Preserve evidence

Silence, spin, and endless optimism are not substitutes for delivery.

Final words

GRAPE is not a revolution.
It is LunaOne 2.0, wrapped in AI buzzwords, staged confidence, and recycled promises.

When you feed seventeen AMAs into the light, the story doesn’t improve — it collapses under its own contradictions.

Belief is not due diligence.
Hope is not a strategy.
And “just around the corner” is not a product.

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 YOUTUBE CHANNEL. 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.”

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