Mani Thawani has become the great example to follow and the perfect guru in the world of cryptocurrencies and “smart” investments, which thousands of young people, especially in Spain, follow. Let’s see who Mani Thawani is and everything that surrounds the “Crypto World” of him.
Mani Thawani has become one of the most influential cryptocurrency investment icons in Spain. An apparently absolute success story that has not gone unnoticed: a complicated childhood, with no opportunity to study and working from a very young age.
However, his life took a 180 degree turn when Bitcoin crossed his path and caused a change in his life at all levels , not only professionally but also financially, personally and in his philosophy of life. When he made his first investment (he does not say how much it amounted to) the cryptocurrency was at $273 (20,627 euros at the time of writing this report).
He wants to end the “centralized dictatorship” of the banks and reform a system that encourages “young people to go out on a Saturday to spend their money on alcohol and tobacco” rather than improve their training.
Of course, Thawani knows a lot about blockchain, cryptocurrencies and the metaverse, but also about marketing and uses it in such a way that it is capable of attracting thousands and thousands of young people to its ranks. He is the Moses of the 21st century but with a Canarian accent and a smooth talk that the character in the Bible would have liked, although of course with less good intentions, at least presumably.
Mani Thawani, from nothing to everything thanks to the investment in Bitcoin
Our protagonist is Mani Thawani, born in San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) in 1992. After a few years, he moved to Tenerife, where he studied in an English school, his third language after Spanish and Hindi, where his family.
After the death of his father, his life changed. At the age of 16, he had to leave school because the family’s economic situation was not the best, although his first steps were in 2015 as an investor in Bitcoin and as an entrepreneur in the sector.
“I was able to live with 5,000 euros at 17, that’s glory. I did all kinds of math, physics, marketing, sales courses. I did all kinds of training and when that year came I decided to continue working and studying online. At 20 years, I had a big advantage over my friends who had a career: I had the same knowledge, but I had income and no debt,” he said.
It was in 2019 in Tenerife when he created Mundo Crypto, a company dedicated 100% to the world of training in the cryptocurrency market and digital assets. It was born with the objective of training young people due to the lack of online courses on the subject since “those that were there did not teach you anything” (although he claims to have been trained with more than 500 courses).
However, Mani has not stopped there, and has continued to undertake in the cryptocurrency sector where he has already opened several businesses , a tax consultancy where they have exclusive clients, a boutique marketing agency developing communication strategies and brand plans for different crypto brands
The next launch will be that of a purely digital press focused on offering information and specialized knowledge 100% on cryptocurrencies and a metaverse that wants to compete with Facebook itself .
Thanks to all this expansion, the holding currently has offices in Madrid, Dubai and more than 100 employees in different brands.
Crypto world: this is how an entire empire arose
Currently, Mundo Crypto after its birth in 2019, is the largest cryptocurrency academy in Spain with more than 40,000 students.
However, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has already warned on numerous occasions that creators “do not have any type of license to advise on financial instruments or mediate investment operations on financial instruments.”
Suspicions about Mundo Crypto (based in Dubai) are of such a caliber that the regulatory body includes it in the “grey list” , (a kind of quarantine before entering the black list) where I’M Academy is also.
This alleged international online academy (I’M Academy) without physical headquarters, attracts young people to take alleged training courses in cryptocurrency . The reality is that the kids end up hooked and living only from I’M Academy.
In the case of I’M Academy there is a pyramid scheme ( investment courses cost money and each member has to recruit others to stay in the organization and have discounts) and there is a special abuse of young people. They indoctrinate them, recruit them and get them to drop everything. The modus operandi is identical (keeping the distance) to that of the networks that recruit for jihadism.
“In these groups there is coercive persuasion, which in Spain, unfortunately, is not typified in the Penal Code ,” explains Juantxo Domínguez, president of the Spanish observatory of sectarian drift, RedUNE. “They are sectarian groups of a lifetime, but adapted to the 21st century,” he continues.
However, Mundo Crypto manages to escape that “pyramid scam” label and the Canarian businessman insists that the investment facet is residual and that Mundo Crypto is more compared to the large online training platforms, such as Coursera or Udemi .
Metaverse Day, an event involved in controversy, under the magnifying glass of the CNMV
The WiZink Center dressed up on August 27, 2022 to accommodate a great event as if it were a Rosalía concert, in which it brought together 7,000 attendees, under the name: MundoCrypto Metaverse Day, in which he sought to give information about the world of cryptocurrencies and the future metaverse and “sell his Mundo Crypto courses.”
The organizers spent more than two million euros renting the venue and planned to break the record for simultaneous connection with virtual reality glasses , with all the participants. However, nothing is further from reality.
Note that the current Guinness world record for “greatest number of people using virtual reality screens simultaneously” is 1,867. Mobileye achieved it at the YPO EDGE 2017 event (and it still is, now we tell you).
The meeting was preceded by a great controversy , since it was implied that the event was intended to deceive a group of perfect young people in order to brainwash them. It all started with a notice from the CNMV.
The inclusion in the gray list of Mundo Crypto, in addition to the notice from the CNMV that three of the sponsors of the event, Huobi, BITGET and BYBIT , were considered financial stalls, that is, entities that offer and provide investment services without being registered in the corresponding supervisory authority (CNMV in the case of Spain), things changed completely.
A few days after the event, and after the alert from the CNMV, the two presenters of the event (Cristina Pedroche and Jorge Fernández) decided not to attend. In addition, companies such as Coca Cola or Playstation also chose not to participate.
However, the community of investors and those interested in cryptocurrencies did show support around the event. In fact, Binance joined it, and is an entity endorsed by the Bank of Spain.
As for the record, guests’ mobile phones would be inserted into the VR headset, which would contain earplugs for an immersive experience. However, it seems that the WiFi network, in addition to requesting data from the attendees for their connection (something not recommended from the point of view of security and privacy), could not supply the connection and it fell.
Basically, the focus was on breaking the record and it all came to nothing. From then on, the event went into decline: boring people, hours of waiting to try to solve the problem and a lot of anger (the event lasted seven hours). Of course, the free food and drink made the wait and the occasional drunkenness quite lively.
In his opinion, 85% of the attendees were licensed people, over 25 years of age and there were hardly any young people. However, the average age was around 20 or 25 years and many of them were members of “crypto” groups with identifying clothing such as Army Crypto.
“It has been very poor, it has come to nothing. They just wanted to sell their product,” criticized an assistant , via Business Insider, who a few months ago paid 3,000 euros for one of the courses of this company, which, according to his account, did it has satisfied you.
“A marriage proposal broadcast on giant screens, people throwing fake dollars over their heads and taking photos, beers for 10 euros, little Nicolás, a Who wants to be a millionaire where the winner took an Ethereum” , they expose .
According to some attendees, via Carlos Tamayo, of which we recommend you watch his documentary related to this event , which he attended, some people could be seen dressed as sheikhs to give the event a more “financial and exclusive” touch.
The truth is that, despite all the hubbub that was formed around this event, as you know, it finally took place since it was considered that there was nothing criminal about it. And, certainly, that formative aspect that was expected did not happen.
Logically they knew what could happen if some of their words focused on “brainwashing”, so they knew how to take care of them and simply focused on providing information and showing off all their future projects. Of course, it was not intended to encourage anyone to invest but there was a huge presence of companies dedicated to it moving throughout the stadium.
And it is that, many assure that there is a certain resentment or fortuitous stoning on the part of the CNMV in relation to this company and many others. 61% of the total companies that appear on this list at the end of last year are cryptocurrency providers and Coinbase, for example, is on it (the first cryptocurrency company in history to go public).
In all honesty, it should be noted that high-level experts participated in the round tables, such as Eneko Astorkiza, manager of KuCoin Exchange, Xavi Molina, general director of FTX for Iberia, Juan Ramón Rallo, professor of Economics at IE University and at IE Business School or Pablo Gil, head of strategy at XTB Spain.
“The media is the enemy”
The relationship of this tycoon with the media has been, from the beginning, a challenge. Mani Thawani has already denounced the manipulation of the media on several occasions (which is why he wants to form his own).
And it is that, one of the great criticisms of the media is that dated guru and everything that surrounds Thawani. One of the big issues, apart from the event, are its courses of between 3,000 and 5,000 euros (there are cheaper ones) and what this training is really for, which it claims to have trained more than 50,000 people.
Of course, their website is the perfect example of marketing that many young people would fall for: success stories, data that extols their quality, catchy slogans (“Are you joining the World’s No. 1 Cryptocurrency Academy?”) And a long etcetera.
Of course, no information in relation to the courses , the study plan or what real guarantees they give you when you finish them.
He has been accused of using the courses as a hook to recruit young people who are as disenchanted with traditional banking as they are seduced by the standard of living that gurus like Thawani show on Instagram.
Going back to the event, the organizers used social networks to put out the fire created and make their “innocence” clear. “The media lie to you,” they announce. And it is that, they also know how to take advantage of this distrust of young people in the current media to perfection.
Sect experts (although we are not talking about one of them) affirm that the first commandment of a psychological pressure group is precisely such powerful control of information and the fact of never accepting even critical media.
Sevi Shehu, head of Mundo Crypto, among others, who defines himself as a “specialist in business strategies and with experience in educational techniques”, recorded a video to make it clear that the media is “enraged” and wants to “put limits on knowledge” .
After assuring that the cryptocurrency market is volatile, he stated that the speakers would talk about the advantages and risks of online money. Shehu claimed that the event was strictly educational and that no member of the organization gave advice to anyone.
Another person in charge of the organization, Javier Medina, published a video in which he insisted on the “educational nature” of the meeting. “Mundo Crypto is an advocate of sensible regulation of cryptocurrencies, which are available to anyone with an internet connection. We are professional trainers so that people do not fall for scams.”
To this we must add some numbers that do not add up. As revealed by Cinco Días, the parent company of Mundo Crypto (Grupo Mundo Blockmatica ) only has six permanent employees and in 2021 it registered a turnover of 916,000 euros and a profit of 81,900.
Knowing all this, of course, Mani Thawani is an expert communicator who has perfectly known how to attract the attention of the media from around the world and put the cryptocurrency sector in Spain on the lips of many young people. We will see what outcome all this has because surely we will have more news and events from this guru.
