The man who co founded the world’s largest stablecoin was arrested by Interpol in a Spanish villa with guns, machetes and child pornography

His name is Brock Pierce
If you’ve ever held USDT, the $140 BILLION stablecoin that settles more daily volume than Visa in some months you’ve used a product he co founded
Brock Pierce was a Disney child actor. He starred in The Mighty Ducks, D2, and First Kid
At 16 he met a 40 year old businessman named Marc Collins Rector
Collins Rector was building Digital Entertainment Network. A pre YouTube streaming platform funded by David Geffen, Microsoft, and Dell
They raised $60 MILLION and were planning a $75 MILLION IPO
At 17 Pierce was VP at a base salary of $250,000
Pierce, Collins Rector, and Collins Rector’s boyfriend lived together in a 12,600 square foot mansion in Encino
The mansion hosted parties attended by Hollywood’s A list: Bryan Singer, David Geffen and Gary Goddard
DEN’s flagship show “Chad’s World” was co-written by Collins Rector, produced by Pierce, and targeted “gay and questioning teen boys”
In October 1999 a young man filed a lawsuit alleging Collins Rector had sexually molested him for three years starting at age 13
The IPO collapsed
In July 2000 three more former DEN employees filed a sexual abuse lawsuit naming Pierce, Collins-Rector, and Shackley together alleging rape, assault, drugging of minors and death threats
Collins Rector was indicted for transporting minors across state lines for sex
All three men fled to Spain
Interpol arrested them in Marbella in 2002. Guns, machetes, and child pornography were found in the house
Pierce was released without criminal charges. Collins Rector pleaded guilty to eight counts of child enticement and registered as a sex offender
The civil lawsuits against Pierce were “dismissed and/or settled out of court.”
He settled with at least one plaintiff for $21,600. He has consistently denied all allegations
In 2014 Pierce co-founded Tether originally called Realcoin
Tether became the largest stablecoin in crypto. By 2019 USDT was processing higher daily volume than Bitcoin itself
Tether has never been audited by a Big Four firm. Their first audit attempt with Friedman LLP was abruptly disbanded in 2018 with no explanation
In 2021 Tether settled with the New York Attorney General for $18.5 MILLION over misrepresenting their reserves
The connections kept growing
Pierce founded Blockchain Capital. In that role he helped Jeffrey Epstein become an early investor in Coinbase
He spoke at Epstein’s “Mindshift” conference in 2011 - three years AFTER Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor
In February 2026 the US Department of Justice released emails from Epstein’s files. One email from Pierce to Epstein read: “a boat in Antigua full of amazing Ukraine’s finest” was waiting for him
The system runs on USDT. USDT was built by Brock Pierce. And Brock Pierce has answered the same questions about the same allegations for a quarter century