Crypto scams have been there since the early crypto days. It’s one of the drawbacks of having a mostly unregulated financial sector. The people behind these crypto scams are creative. They find various ways to separate you from your digital assets. Some of these crypto scams were very successful as well.
So, we take a closer look at 10 major crypto scams. This is Part 1; in Part 2 we cover another 10 major crypto scams.
OneCoin was a Ponzi scheme founded by Ruja Ignatova. By claiming that their project was a ‘Bitcoin killer’, they scammed investors out of $4 billion. Ignatova is on the FBI’s most wanted list after he vanished in 2017. However, her brother was arrested in 2019 and pleaded guilty to fraud.
Source: X
Thodex was a Turkish crypto exchange. The owner, Faruk Fatih Özer, fled in April 2022. In his luggage, he carried $2 billion. After claiming a cyberattack, the exchange closed.
At that time, it had 391k users. In September 2022, the police managed to arrest Özer in Albania.
Source: X
In the wake of popular ‘dog coin’ projects, AnubisDAO launched in 2021. The project raised 13.6k $ETH. This was at the time worth $60 million.
Investors would receive the $ANKH token in return. The token launch was at the now defunct ‘Copper’ platform. However, there was no website or whitepaper.
Source: X
4. Squid Game
The Squid Game and its $SQUID coin was a P2E blockchain game. By buying a $SQUID coin, you could enter the game platform.
Its ATH reached $2,861 with a market cap of $2.1 trillion. It launched on the Binance Smart Chain. The scammers got away with $3.3 million.
5. Mutant Ape Planet NFT
Aurelien Michel is a 24-year-old French citizen living in the UAE at the time. He launched the sketchy Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection.
The NFTs were knock-offs and had no relation to the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. He got away with $2.9 million but got arrested at JFK airport in NYC.
Source: X
6. Luna Yield
Luna Yield was a DeFi yield aggregator. In August 2021, the team rug pulled the project for $6.7 million after only two days. It launched on SolPAD, a Solana-based IDO platform.
This was only their second project that launched. The scammers managed to launder their contraband on Tornado Cash.
Source: X
7. StableMagnet
StableMagnet promised investors huge returns on deposits in June 2021. The scamming team got away with $27 million.
StableMagnet’s team manipulated liquidity pool smart contracts. The project didn’t offer an audit. With a backdoor in the smart contracts, they managed to drain the funds.
8. PlusToken
PlusToken was a Chinese crypto platform. Between May 2018 to June 2019, it scammed its users out of $2.25 billion.
Today, that would be worth around $11 billion. This was also a Ponzi scheme. China arrested a total of 100 people. Sentences in November 2020 for ringleaders ranged between 2 and 11 years.
Source: X
9. WoToken
WoToken was another Chinese Ponzi scheme. This time, 715,429 people got scammed out of $1.1 billion. One of the team members was supposedly also involved in the PlusToken scam.
This happened between July 2018 and October 2019. Four team members got jail time. However, only $63.6M was ever recovered.
Source: X
10. BitConnect
BitConnect was another Ponzi scheme. In 2017 and 2018 it scammed users out of $2.5 billion. Their $BCC coin crashed from almost $525 to $1 on 17th January 2018.
Source: X
The project worked with a trading bot and offered high returns. This is the end of Part 1. Keep an eye out for Part 2 of major crypto scams.
Disclaimer
The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may be different from yours.
We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments, so please do your due diligence.
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