Telegram OTC Scam Steals $50 Million by Offering Fake Altcoin Trades at Discounts
Despite warnings, many investors still ignore red flags and trust fake cryptocurrency advertising campaigns.
A sophisticated scam campaign operating on Telegram has just been exposed, where scammers lure users into buying popular altcoins at seemingly attractive discounts. This behavior has led many investors to fall into the trap and lose huge amounts of money.
Coins Compromised in OTC Scam
Scammers pose as OTC dealers, offering attractive offers involving tokens with clear vesting schedules. Prominent projects such as SUI, NEAR, SEI, and Axelar [AXL]—tokens with high liquidity and strong communities—are used to add credibility to the scam.
Victims lost more than $50 million after believing these offers.
Cryptocurrency analyst Altcoin Alpha said that promoters pushed the campaign in private Telegram groups, accompanied by the appearance of crypto whales and famous venture capitalists, giving the scam false credibility.
Between November 2024 and January 2025, the operation appeared to be legal, with advertisements of profits and calls for others to join, causing many investors to continue to participate.
But then everything fell apart. The campaign was crushed by a traditional Ponzi scheme, with new investors' money used to pay off old investors' debts.
In June 2025, the story came to a head when the Token distribution suddenly stopped. The people behind it disappeared, giving vague reasons about movement or transaction issues.
What else happened?
Telegram scams flourished in the early stages of the 2024 crypto bull run, stemming from initially legitimate OTC offers.
Initially, Tokens like The Graph (GRT), Aptos [APT], Sei [SEI], and SWELL were offered at steep discounts of up to 50%, attracting many investors due to early access opportunities and vesting distribution.
On-chain data confirms the presence of these Tokens in personal wallets, contributing to the construction of artificial trust.
The final stages of the scam
On June 19, public reflection of the scam was made public, when Aza Ventures—a key broker involved in the deals—confirmed it had been defrauded.
They identified an individual known as “Source 1” as the main culprit behind the global Ponzi scheme of more than $50 million.
Aza Ventures said it knew the identity of the person, believing him to be an Indian citizen who founded the project currently listed on Binance.
However, they refused to be named publicly, hoping to recover the stolen money through private negotiations.
Meanwhile, blockchain analysts Chainalysis and Crypto Sleith have accused Ravindra Kumar, founder of Self Chain, of being the culprit.
Kumar, however, has denied the allegations and promised to make an official statement at the appropriate time.
Source: Ravindra Kumar/X
Warnings were issued, but investors ignored them.
By May 2025, warnings about OTC scams on Telegram began to appear. However, many investors still did not listen because they had stable profits.
“There is no such transaction,” Eman Abio from the SUI team posted on X. He urged people to avoid fraudulent OTC offers on Telegram.
Source: Altcoin Alpha/X
Lucian Mincu, co-founder of MultiversX (formerly Elrond), also expanded on the warnings. But these warnings have not been enough to deter investors, given the early returns and celebrity backing.
Thus, the initial profits and recommendations from reputable figures overshadowed the warnings, allowing the $50 million scam to continue and expand.
Statistics on the rise of criminal activities in the cryptocurrency sector
As cryptocurrency-related crimes become more sophisticated, the question is whether this trend can continue unchecked forever?
On January 15, 2025, Chainalysis reported that addresses involved in criminal activity will receive $40.9 billion in 2024, although much lower than previous years.
However, experts say this number still contains many undiscovered crimes, as investigators increasingly discover illegal wallets, negatively affecting market sentiment and behavior.
The impact of the scam on the price of compromised altcoins
Following the $50 million scam on Telegram, tokens like SUI, NEAR, and AXL fell 4%, 4.8%, and 1.88% respectively within 24 hours.
More interestingly, the SEI token stood out with a 5.08% increase, bucking the overall bearish trend, according to CoinMarketCap.
Source: https://tintucbitcoin.com/telegram-scam-50-million-usd-4-altcoin/
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