Investor Warning: Arisebank ICO “strategic partnership” with Bitshares is a scam

The market capitalization of Bitshares (BTS) has nearly doubled in the past two days, soaring past a billion dollars following a partnership announcement with Arisebank that has been spread across multiple high traffic social channels and media outlets:

Cryptocurrency Bank AriseBank To Acquire 100 Year Old FDIC Bank; Partner With BitShares.

Cryptocurrency Bank AriseBank To Acquire FDIC-Insured Bank; Partners With BitShares.

Before we go any further, let’s just come out and say that Arisebank is a total scam. A scam which has taken quite a lot of effort to perpetrate. The Arisebank website is littered with very nicely done marketing material, graphics, and tons of documentation.

They have banking, debit cards, ATMs, careers, developer tools, block explorers, a 100 page whitepaper, and the largest ICO in history:

They claim to have already raised $198.2M. Where is it?

The mastermind behind it all goes by the name of Jared Rice, who is a known scammer with numerous statements from previous investors who have fallen victim to his scams in the past:

Ripoff Report | Dynastack Inc Complaint Review Dallas, Texas

BitOfGlory — Scam — Jared Rice CEO Dynastack

Further evidence about Jared and Arise:

• Jared’s personal website that is referenced has been taken down: https://jaredricesr.com/
• Jared’s linkedin that was recently created with zero endorsements or credibility: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jricearise/
  or is it actually this guy? https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredricesr/
  Or did he just steal his identity?
• Arise’s forums are non-existent: https://forum.arisebank.com/
• Their 1100 ATM locations? https://find.arisebank.com/atm/ — not a single one actually exists
• Regulatory filings on a “Fully regulated financial institution”? Not a single one.
• Locations at the Dubai International Finance Center? No results found.

Where are these offices?

• Code for the bank of the future? Only enough to take your money https://github.com/AriseBank:

AriseCoin purchase screen, where I was authorized to send $36,000,000 in Ether. KYC/AML? Forget about it.

We reached out to the Bitshares community to warn investors of the Arisebank/coin scam, and what we found was disturbing. Members of the Bitshares inner circle are promoting the article and dismissing multiple concerns from community members about the legitimacy of the Arise partnership.

Co-founder promoting the article

Michael who paid for the Arise Huffington post article- also a known scammer dismissing the evidence to his community.

While the warning signs may appear obvious to some, many consumers caught up in the hysteria of ICOs and cryptocurrencies will not peer beyond the veil and will lose some or all of their money.

Buyer beware, marketing is cheap, and almost every news article is biased and paid for. Do your homework, ask hard questions, and think before you send.

These findings have been forwarded to the SEC Enforcement group.