Roger Ver

Roger Keith Ver (born 1979) is an entrepreneur who was an early investor in Bitcoin, Bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of Bitcoin, and sometimes known as Bitcoin Jesus. He now primarily promotes Bitcoin Cash. He previously was CEO of Bitcoin.com.

In 2014, he renounced his United States citizenship after obtaining citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis citing libertarian beliefs and opposition to U.S. tax policies. He was indicted in April 2024 for income tax evasion in the US.

Early life and education

Ver was born in 1979 in San Jose, California. He attended Valley Christian High School and then De Anza College for one year, before dropping out to pursue his business interests.

Ver attempted a run for the California State Assembly in the Libertarian Party. During a debate in the run-up to this election, he claimed that the Drug Enforcement Administration was criminal in its practice. He moved to Japan in 2005, where he maintained his residence as of 2021.

Career

MemoryDealers.com

Ver was the CEO of MemoryDealers.com from 1999 until 2012. In 2000, he attempted to enter politics by running for California State Assembly as a candidate for the Libertarian Party.

Cryptocurrency

Ver began investing in bitcoin in early 2011. The first investment he made was for Charlie Shrem’s Bitinstant. Ver's investment allowed the company to hire a designer and another programmer. He invested over a million dollars into new Bitcoin-related startups, including Ripple, Blockchain.com, BitPay, and Kraken. In 2011, Ver's company Memorydealers was the first to accept Bitcoin as payment. He has been a prominent supporter of Bitcoin adoption and saw Bitcoin as a means to promote economic freedom.

In 2012, Ver was organizing Bitcoin meetups in Sunnyvale, California. He is one of five founders of the Bitcoin Foundation. Ver wants Bitcoin to rival major fiat currencies.

He is one of the main proponents of a larger block size for the Bitcoin blockchain. He supported the development of Bitcoin XT as a hard fork method towards an increase. Ver and his high school friend Jesse Powell attempted to re-establish the Mt Gox exchange during the June 2011 Bitcoin price crash.

Ver was CEO of Bitcoin.com until 1 August 2019, when he transitioned to executive chairman. In early 2020, ''Fortune Magazine'' mistakenly referred to Ver as the co-creator of Bitcoin Cash.

CoinFlex

As of June 2022, he was a shareholder in CoinFLEX, a centralized yield crypto exchange and he is rumoured to be in a large amount of debt, which caused problems for the site. On 23 June 2022, CoinFlex paused withdrawals after a counterparty, which it later named as Ver, experienced liquidity issues and failed to repay a $47 million stablecoin margin call.

Book Publication

In 2024, Ver self-published the book ''Hijacking Bitcoin'' about the history of Bitcoin.

Personal life

Ver renounced his United States citizenship in 2014 after he became a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 2015, he was denied a visa to reenter the United States by the U.S. embassy in Barbados, which claimed that he had not sufficiently proven ties outside of the United States that would motivate him to leave at the end of his visit, causing fears he might become an illegal immigrant. Later in the same year his visa was approved by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and he visited the United States in 2017 to speak at a conference in Aspen, Colorado. Ver's name was published in the 2018 Q1 Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate. In 2019, Ver was denied a visa to travel to Australia. In 2020, Ver also became a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda.

On his website, Ver describes himself as a libertarian and anarcho-capitalist.

Ver has competed in Brazilian jiu-jitsu championships.

Legal issues

In 2002, Ver pleaded guilty to selling a form of pest control fireworks (deemed "explosive materials") without a license, as well as storing and mailing the material. Ver sold a brand called "Pest Control Report 2000" on eBay, this product was primarily used as a loud firecracker with the purpose of scaring away birds and other animals which might be deemed as pests on farmland. He was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison. The manufacturer was later forced to stop making and selling the product, which contained powder exceeding the legal limit for such pest control firecrackers.

He was arrested in Spain on U.S. tax evasion charges in April 2024. In December 2024 Ver's attorneys filed to have the case dismissed and Ver was still in Spain (where he had been arrested by Spanish authorities) fighting extradition to the US. In January 2025, Elon Musk tweeted that he had asked Donald Trump about the possibility of Ver receiving a pardon. However, Elon Musk followed up with: “Roger Ver gave up his US citizenship, No pardon for Ver. Membership has its privileges.” In April 2025, Roger Ver paid Roger Stone $600,000 to Lobby for him in an effort to change the law that Roger was charged with violating

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ver, Roger
1979 births
Living people
American anarcho-capitalists
American emigrants to Japan
American investors
American libertarians
Businesspeople from San Jose, California
De Anza College alumni
Naturalised citizens of Saint Kitts and Nevis
People associated with cryptocurrency
People from San Jose, California
Voluntaryists
Former United States citizens