Earlier this week, the self-described creator of Anonymous and part-time federal cooperator Aubrey “Kirtaner” Cottle announced on Discord that there was a warrant for his arrest for violating the conditions of his bail, and that he would be surrendering himself and returning to prison.
Kirtaner was granted bail after he was arrested in April 2024 for allegedly hacking the Texas GOP and Epik LLC. The conditions of his bail forbid any association with hacking or doxing groups, “including but not limited to Anonymous.” Kirtaner seems to have violated that condition by spearheading $ANON, a meme coin based on Anonymous whose holders have used various alleged hacks to promote the coin.
The case against Kirtaner can be traced to his bizarre TikTok confession and a series of accusatory articles by National File, a right-wing website created by Alex Jones. Following these, in late August 2022 Kirtaner was served with a search warrant and his house was raided. In several posts on X/Twitter and private messages I was provided copies of, Kirtaner claimed that the search missed four laptops and two phones that were in his car, as well as dozens of hard drives which were on a shelf sitting next to his computer. Corroborating these claims are pictures of the phones that Kirtaner posted online and of the hard drives that he sent to a third party.
The FBI and the Ontario Provincial Police continued to communicate, and in early September 2024 the Department of Justice brought charges and a sealed arrest warrant was issued for Kirtaner. By the end of March 2025, the case in the United States was unsealed and Kirtaner was also facing charges in Canada: mischief to computer data, unauthorized use of a computer, and possession of a device to obtain unauthorized use of a computer, with the latter referring to Kirtaner’s Hak5 kit.
After his arrest, Kirtaner was granted bail so that he could continue to work, pay bills and support his child, though according to his ex-wife he has not paid child support. The conditions of his bail required him to live with his mother, who had to supervise all of his internet use. He was also forbidden from owning any device “for penetration of computer networks or databases (ie hacking),” and from associating with hackers, doxers, or members of Anonymous. According to messages posted online, Kirtaner was aware that spearheading the coin violated these conditions.
On September 4th, Kirtaner posted that he was “risking being put back in jail for this coin.” On the 30th he said that “$ANON is literally a bail violation for me,” adding that “every day I risk being arrested (as well as my mom being arrested) just for this coin existing.” Kirtaner’s fears were well-founded, as he not only received all the trading fees from the coin but planned to have the meme coin do more than just borrow Anonymous’ name and iconography. Kirtaner told Decrypt that he was ‘setting aside chunks of supply for the original Anonymous members’ and that the coin would become “self-organizing machine, just like Anonymous is.”
“Once it gets to a certain point, there are initiatives that I want to do. I want to create a scholarship fund for young, talented hackers, so they can do things like get key certifications and blossom in their careers. I want to be able to put together initiatives, such as legal defense funding pools behind a nonprofit for hacktivists.”
While the coins’ holders often describe it as the “original” $ANON and movement coin, there have been multiple $ANON coins since at least 2018. One of the prior coins boasted that “by holding $ANON, users become part of a movement.” Other cryptocurrency projects, like AssangeDAO, have also tried to build movements and fund legal defenses. Notably, large parts of the Anonymous community consider the coin a scam by Kirtaner to grift money.
Perhaps explaining Kirtaner’s seemingly reckless behavior was his belief that he was being protected by legal consequences, joking both members of the $ANON community and an ex-girlfriend that he was protected because he was a “glowie,” which is 4chan slang for an informant. (In the screenshot Kirtaner posted as well as in other posts, he claims that my HOPE talk incriminated him in Russian casualties, something he admitted that was about someone else in a series of unsolicited messages to me.)
Kirtaner appears to have been aware that the risk was becoming real since at least October 18th, when he referred to “an urgent IRL situation.” Several days later, he clarified that it was “an urgent legal situation” that could leave him inaccessible and without internet access indefinitely. This Sunday (October 26), Kirtaner announced that he would be going to jail the next day because there was a week old warrant for his arrest over his involvement in $ANON. He optimistically said that he might be out quickly, but “with much much tighter restrictions, 24/7 surveillance etc,” which was described by another member of the Discord as “so bearish.”
According to Kirtaner, the police had gone to his mother’s house looking for him, and she would be arrested if he didn’t turn himself in. During his bail hearing earlier this year, she had said that she would accept responsibility for him and agreed that he would live with her and she would supervise his internet use. He added that the situation had been escalating for two weeks, which seems to confirm that his posts on the 18th were about his bail violation.
Over the next several hours, Kirtaner coordinated with other members of the $ANON Discord, and transferred control of his X/Twitter account to pixie. Since Kirtaner announced his arrest to the Discord, the value of the $ANON coin has continued to slowly sink and currently hovers around a market cap of $200,000, down from an all-time high of approximately $17 million. As of October 29th, $ANON’s transfer fees have earned Kirtaner over $112,000.
Reaction to Kirtaner’s arrest has been mixed. Some members of the $ANON community want to carry on in his name and use him as a sort of martyr to boost the price of the coin. Other members repeatedly posted “FREE KIRT” in the $ANON Discord chat. While Kirtaner had warned the Discord community that bringing it Twitter would make things worse for him and that “feds are watching,” some of those that did post about it on Twitter celebrated his arrest.
Meanwhile, the $ANON community continues to work on bounty boards, promising each other that they’ll raise the price of $ANON back up. It remains to be seen what will become of the meme coin, or of Kirtaner’s optimism that his lawyers will get him released quickly after having knowingly violated his bail.
Update: A week later, a second $ANON developer announced that they had been raided and that they “may be working with the FBI soon.”
For reference, an archive of the $ANON Discord server made on October 28, 2025 has been uploaded and can be viewed with Discord History Tracker.
