Top 6 Cryptocurrency Exit Scams

Every time money is involved in any business model or project, there is a good chance an exit scam will occur sooner or later. In the cryptocurrency industry, such exit scams are a lot more common than one might think. The following examples show how one should never trust another person on the internet, no matter the business model involved.

Influencer Crypto Brahma’s Moon Club

It is not uncommon to see “cryptocurrency influencers” pop up on social media these days. More often than not, these self-professed financial gurus offer trading advice for a fee. In the case of Crypto Brahma, things got sour pretty quickly. Despite successfully running the Moon Club group – which yielded a fair income – he eventually disappeared after pulling what many claim to be an exit scam.

It appears he used a lot of funds for margin trading and made some bad calls down the line. Interestingly enough, he promised investors to return the money eventually, but it is unclear if he ever met his self-set deadline. It is a great example of how influencers are not the ones who should give out trading advice, let alone get paid for doing so.

MapleChange Seemingly Disappeared

It is a lot more common for cryptocurrency exchanges to disappear these days. MapleChange, a Canadian trading platform, initially claimed it suffered from a hack and loss of funds. They also did not have funds to pay affected customers, thus they shut down the exchange altogether. Although the team tried to keep people updated, all of the social media accounts were deleted. This only fuels the speculation as to how this was a well-orchestrated exit scam, rather than an actual hack.

Evolution Darknet Marketplace

When it comes to darknet marketplaces shutting down, a large amount of them do so as part of an ongoing exit scam. Evolution was no exception, even though the platform suddenly disappeared in 2015. It later turned out nearly $12m worth of Bitcoin disappeared. It is widely believed the operators of Evolution are responsible for the marketplace’s demise and pulled an exit scam in the process. The real truth may never be found out, although an exit scam scenario seems the most plausible.

Pure Bit Never Amounts to Much

For all of the innovative ideas floating around in the world of cryptocurrency, there are almost equally as many nefarious projects. South Korean startup Pure Bit highlights this problem rather well. The team disappeared with 13,000 Ether which was raised through an Initial Coin Offering. Pure Bit also deleted social media channels. People who looked at the company’s business plan immediately noticed this company would not work out. Plenty of red flags were raised, yet people still invested blindly in this project.

Prodeum Founder’s Identity Theft Hoax

It is evident most of the Initial Coin Offerings have not yielded any worthwhile projects. In the case of Prodeum, raising the funds and seemingly working on the project was off to a good start. All of a sudden, the project’s website was defaced and one of the founders claimed he fell victim to some form of identity theft. In fact, he distanced himself from this project altogether, claiming he wasn’t affiliated. In the end, roughly $500,000 worth of Ether was stolen through a clear exit scam.

BitConneeeeeeeeeeeeeect

When it comes to cryptocurrency exit scams, one has to look no further than BitConnect. While clearly a Ponzi Scheme waiting to collapse from day one, the project still garnered a lot of success. Its own “internal exchange” kept traders happy at first, although things fell apart when that platform was shut down without any reason. Infinite returns on an investment are not possible in any industry, especially not where cryptocurrencies are concerned. No one knows how much money was stolen exactly, but there is a chance a billion dollars has disappeared into the BitConnect owners’ pockets.

Disclaimer: This is not trading or investment advice. The above article is for entertainment and education purposes only. Please do your own research before purchasing or investing into any cryptocurrency.