What is it with former child stars and the siren song of crypto? Zachery Ty Bryan, who played Brad on the sitcom Home Improvement in the 90s, got rich when he used his earnings to buy in early to Bitcoin thanks to a tip from fellow child star-turned-crypto-mogul, Brock Pierce. Then, he got into selling fake tokens that he said were connected to an agricultural scheme called “Producers Market”, which promised to help farmers by “connecting farmers and makers directly to you”.
The project was real, and they had in fact brought on Bryan as an advisor and investor. Bryan later stated in a YouTube video that he had “[taken] the majority of my Bitcoin and rolled it into this technology”. However, the firm scrapped its plans for an initial coin offering in 2019. Despite this, Bryan continued pitching the ICO to friends and family with the promise of big returns. One investor, a college student, he reeled in after matching with her on the dating app Bumble. Various sources told The Hollywood Reporter they’d lost between $5,000 and $25,000, for a total of almost $50,000.
In October 2020, Producers Market cut ties with Bryan. This coincided with Bryan being arrested for felony strangulation and other charges in regards to a drunken assault on a girlfriend, which he later pled down to misdemeanor menacing and fourth-degree assault.
