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BitConnect was a typical Ponzi scheme that once caused a sensation in the cryptocurrency world, harvesting global investors with its core gimmick of "high-yield lending + mining," ultimately resulting in over $2 billion in massive losses.

The project was packaged as a legitimate cryptocurrency financial platform, claiming that users could participate in the platform's so-called smart mining by pledging Bitcoin to borrow the platform's token BCC, and it promised fixed high returns of 1%-40% per month, with profit ratios far exceeding normal financial products. Initially, it attracted a large number of investors by cashing out small rebates.

To rapidly expand its scale, the project team also indirectly encouraged users to recruit new members, and developing downlines could earn additional commission shares, further amplifying the impact of the scam. In essence, there was no real profit support; the funds invested by later investors were only used to pay off the profits of earlier users, forming a typical closed-loop funding bubble. As the number of participants peaked and the inflow of funds dwindled, the bubble burst quickly, and the platform announced the cessation of all business activities.

After the collapse, the price of BCC plummeted to zero, leaving global investors with nothing, and many fell into financial crises due to leveraged investments. This scam also raised widespread awareness of high-yield financial scams in the cryptocurrency space, prompting regulatory agencies in multiple countries to clearly list such cryptocurrency projects promising fixed returns as key targets for crackdown, making BitConnect a symbolic negative case of Ponzi schemes in the cryptocurrency realm.

String sound waiting for appreciation, time can be expected.

Let's go to attend Teacher Neural Cat's concert.

Time: December 24th 20:00.

AriseBank claims to be the "world's first decentralized cryptocurrency bank," launched an ICO fundraising from the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2018, ultimately embezzling over $6 million, making it one of the most sensational ICO fraud cases of that year.

The project was led by CEO Jared Rice Sr and COO Stanley Ford, who deliberately concealed their criminal records and created a false impression of being "legitimate and trustworthy" through forged authoritative endorsements. They publicly claimed to have obtained a legal banking license in the United States and could provide FDIC federal deposit insurance for user deposits, fabricating a capital-protected and interest-bearing cryptocurrency financial service to attract a large number of investors.

During the fundraising phase, AriseBank focused on issuing the token ARIS, promising that token holders could enjoy a series of exclusive rights related to bank deposits and payments, continuously amplifying the token's appreciation potential. But in fact, the project had neither real blockchain underlying technology support nor compliant financial business qualifications; the so-called "decentralized bank" was merely an empty shell concept.

The scam was quickly exposed, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) swiftly intervened, determining that its ICO activities were suspected of illegal securities issuance, and subsequently filed a lawsuit against the project team. Ultimately, AriseBank's ICO fundraising was urgently halted, the fraudulent actions of the operators were made public, and investors' funds were difficult to recover.

The operators behind GainBitcoin are Indian brothers Amit Bhardwaj and Ajay Bhardwaj. The project is affiliated with the Singapore company Variabletech PTE.Ltd and officially launched in 2015.

Involved amount: Initially, it was reported that over $300 million was involved, but after further investigation by the Indian police, it was confirmed that the actual amount involved reached as high as $13.7 billion (approximately 960 billion Indian Rupees). In 2025, the police seized $2.75 million in implicated crypto assets, but there are still substantial assets unaccounted for.

Its core scheme is a combination of the “cloud mining” gimmick layered with a Ponzi scheme model that offers returns through multi-level marketing. The project is packaged as a low-threshold, high-return cloud mining platform, claiming that users do not need to purchase expensive mining machines or bear operational costs, but can simply deposit funds to obtain stable and high static mining returns. With the promotional gimmick of “earning Bitcoin while lying down,” it attracted a large number of retail investors seeking stable returns globally in a short time.

At the same time, the project team meticulously designed a multi-level marketing incentive mechanism to encourage existing investors to develop downlines. For every deposit made by downline investors, the uplines earn commission rewards based on their levels, thus rapidly expanding the scale of the funding pool. However, in reality, the project did not have any real mining equipment or mining operations. All returns paid to early investors came from the principal of new investors entering the scheme.

As new funds gradually dried up, the funding pool became unsustainable, and in 2019, the project completely collapsed, with the operators fleeing overseas with the funds. Among them, the main perpetrator Amit Bhardwaj passed away in 2022, resulting in increased difficulty in the follow-up investigation of the case. To this day, a large amount of principal from numerous investors remains unrecoverable, leaving many victims worldwide with significant losses.

Pincoin & iFan is the largest cryptocurrency scam in Vietnam in 2019, orchestrated by the local company F8 Group, using the false commercial loop of "blockchain + tourism + e-commerce" as a gimmick, and designed a Ponzi scheme collection model.

The project team held large-scale presentations offline, inviting internet celebrities and pseudo-industry experts to endorse it, forging investment agreements and high return proofs, promising ordinary people a fixed return of 6%-18% per month, while setting up a rebate mechanism for recruiting subordinates, encouraging investors to develop hierarchical teams. This combination quickly attracted over 320,000 investors, accumulating approximately $660 million in funds.

In mid-2019, the project collapsed completely due to a break in the capital chain, and the core operator fled abroad with the funds, leaving countless investors with nothing. The incident triggered large-scale rights protection protests in many parts of Vietnam. After police intervention, some lower-level agents were arrested, but the main culprit has still not been brought to justice, and almost all of the investors' losses are irretrievable.

This case has also become a typical example of cryptocurrency scams in Southeast Asia, exposing issues such as the public's lack of understanding of blockchain and the lagging regulatory system in small economies, sounding the alarm for global cryptocurrency investment risks.

MemeIndex (MEMEX) is a type of meme coin + index track currency. The project party first promotes the "meme coin index innovation concept" of MEMEX through social media and cryptocurrency community, emphasizing the advantages of dual-audit endorsement and low entry barriers, while collaborating with some small influencers to release false analyses of "hundred-fold coin potential," creating market hype and attracting retail investors' attention.

In the early stages after launch, the project party uses its own funds to drive up the coin price, increasing the MEMEX price several times in a short period, creating the illusion of "continuous rising" on the market platform. At the same time, they release false news of "upcoming listing on top exchanges" and "large institutional holdings" to induce retail investors to buy in at high prices.

When the retail investment volume peaks, the project party will gradually sell off their large amounts of chips at high prices. During the initial slight decline, they will also release statements about "market correction, followed by continued rise" to stabilize retail investors; once most of the chips are sold, they will directly crash the market, causing the coin price to plummet by more than 90%.

After the crash, retail investors rush to sell to stop losses, and the project party will use methods such as closing trading pairs, limiting withdrawal amounts, and causing transaction platform lags to prevent retail investors from selling. They will also delete community promotion records, take down white papers, and cut off communication channels with investors.

MEMEX becomes an "air coin." After losing liquidity, the project party will completely abandon the project, moving the harvested funds and then repackaging a new currency under a different name, repeating the above-mentioned harvesting process.

Trump Coin (TRUMP) is a hype-driven altcoin that emerged during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, with its core strategy being to pump the price based on election sentiment before crashing it to cash out. This token has no actual project backing, no regulatory issuance qualifications, and relies solely on the hype of being 'associated with political figures' for speculation.

During the election campaign phase, the project team heavily promoted the false logic that 'Trump's victory will drive up the token's value' through social media, combined with bot-driven trading to create a false impression of trading frenzy, attracting a large number of speculative retail investors. As the heat of the election topic rose, the token price was speculated to be dozens of times higher than the issuance price in a short period, completely igniting market sentiment.

On the night the token price reached its peak, the project team suddenly concentrated on selling off a large amount of tokens they had accumulated, while simultaneously removing all market maker orders, directly triggering a cliff-like collapse in the token price. Within just a few hours, the token price plummeted over 90%, and subsequently continued to decline towards zero.

According to market monitoring data, in this dumping incident, the project team cashed out over 10 million dollars, while the retail investors who bought in at high prices were almost left with nothing. This case has also become a typical template of 'hype speculation + pump and dump' in the crypto space, exposing the chaos of the altcoin market taking advantage of hot topics to harvest retail investors.

Shell (2025) is a typical case of a market maker-led blanket-style harvesting of retail investors, where the core operation revolves around a three-step logic of 'controlling the market price - enticing entry - concentrated selling', ultimately achieving a cash-out of 20 million USD, while causing the coin price to plummet, resulting in heavy losses for retail investors.

In the early stages of the project, market makers controlled the market by holding a large amount of chips and used methods such as community hype and the release of false good news to gradually raise Shell's market price, creating a false prosperity of 'value appreciation' for the cryptocurrency. As the coin price continued to rise, a large number of retail investors were attracted by the profit effect, rushing in to take over, leading to peak market trading heat and position volume.

After the proportion of retail investors' positions reached expectations, market makers chose to sell off their chips at a concentrated loss, causing enormous selling pressure to break through market liquidity in a short time, triggering a sharp decline in the coin price, with the price halving in a very short period. At this time, retail investors found it difficult to sell their holdings due to insufficient market depth and could only passively bear the consequences of significant asset depreciation.

Throughout the operation, market makers leveraged their information advantage and market control ability, treating retail investors as tools for taking over, completely ignoring the value support of the project itself, which is a typical epitome of blanket-style harvesting in the cryptocurrency circle.

GoPlus (GPS) is a typical case of exchange-backed blanket liquidations, where before the project was launched on the leading exchange Binance in 2025, it was packaged through community hype and media soft articles to shape itself into a 'potential public chain utility token,' attracting a large number of retail investors to position themselves early by leveraging the credibility of the exchange.

After the launch, the project team briefly boosted the coin price in collaboration with market makers, further stimulating off-market follow-up funds to enter. However, within just three days, the market makers concentrated on dumping their holdings, cashing out a total amount as high as $40 million, which directly triggered an 80% crash in the coin price.

After the crash, the project team completely abandoned market value maintenance, disclosing no technical iteration progress and making no moves to promote ecological landing, resulting in a long-term stagnation of the coin price at a low level. Retail investors who entered at high prices, lacking exit channels, were mostly trapped, with their principal significantly shrinking, and their rights protection efforts were difficult to advance due to the project team's concealment and incomplete evidence chain.

The warning significance of this case is that retail investors should not blindly enter the market based solely on the information of the exchange listing, neglecting the project's own technology and landing value.

Movement (token code MOVE) is a typical market maker-led case of exploiting retail investors in the cryptocurrency space in 2024. The project emphasizes the concept of "decentralized social networking + on-chain data rights confirmation," leveraging the initial popularity of Web3 social tracks to intensively promote through community KOLs, quickly attracting retail investors' attention.

After launching, the market makers collaborated with the project team to pump the price, raising MOVE from the issuance price of $0.02 to $0.38 in just 3 days, an increase of 1800%. During this period, they continuously released false good news such as "collaborating with top social platforms" and "soon to be listed on top-tier exchanges," enticing retail investors to buy at a high price. When the proportion of retail investors' holdings exceeded 60% and the circulating chips were sufficiently dispersed, the market makers initiated a crash operation, concentrating on selling 66 million tokens within 48 hours, with large sell orders directly breaking through key support levels, triggering panic selling among retail investors, and the token price plummeted to $0.03, nearly halving.

According to on-chain data statistics, the market makers profited $38 million through low buying and high selling, while retail investors suffered an average loss of over 85%. Worse still, after the crash, the project team quickly removed the official website, white paper, and technical documents, shut down the official community, and completely abandoned project maintenance, solidifying the essence of "exploiting retail investors." The core trick of this case is "concept packaging + false good news + concentrated selling," becoming a typical example of the cryptocurrency space harvesting retail investors by leveraging track hype.

MELANIA is a MEME coin launched in 2025 that exploits the name of former First Lady Melania Trump, lacking technological support, practical application scenarios, and regulatory endorsement. It relies on insider trading and market manipulation techniques to achieve a harvest, with profits involved amounting to nearly $100 million, marking a symbolic case of small-cap coins preying on investors that year.

Before launch, the project team and core insiders privately accumulated over 60% of the circulating tokens at extremely low prices, while releasing vague positive news in niche communities about 'celebrity-related tokens launching soon' to attract a small number of speculative investors' attention, paving the way for price manipulation.

After the token was launched on a decentralized exchange, the project team collaborated with self-media and signal callers to spread false positive news such as 'Melania's team endorsement' and 'large institutional holdings,' while engaging in wash trading with their own holdings to create a false sense of volume and price increase. Within 48 hours, the token price surged over 20 times, causing many retail investors to chase the price upwards.

When retail investor holdings exceeded 30% and the price reached its peak, the project team and insiders simultaneously dumped their holdings. Due to the lack of liquidity depth in the coin, the sell-off triggered a cliff-like price drop, plummeting over 90% within hours. After completing the sell-off, the project team shut down the community, took down the official website, and emptied the wallet address, absconding with nearly $100 million.

Side Chain Coin (SIDE) is a typical pump-and-dump type air coin in 2024, belonging to the common tactic of "concept harvesting" in the cryptocurrency space, with no substantial side chain technology implemented.

In the initial phase, the project team created false technical white papers on "cross-chain expansion" and "low-cost transfers," intensively promoting content on social media and niche communities, deliberately embellishing the hype of a "new dark horse in the side chain race" to attract retail investors and speculators.

After the warm-up period ended, the project team collaborated with off-market makers to initiate a pump operation, using small amounts of funds to inflate the coin price more than 10 times in a short period, creating the illusion of "wealth myths" to induce investors to chase prices at high levels. When the number of retail investors holding positions reached a certain scale and the trading turnover rate peaked, the project team quickly sold off the vast majority of the tokens they held, triggering a catastrophic collapse in coin prices, with a single-day drop of over 90%.

After the crash, the project team not only closed official communities and delisted token trading pairs, but also deleted all publicly available technical documents and promotional materials, completely going offline. Ultimately, the vast majority of investors saw their principal nearly go to zero, with the entire harvesting cycle lasting only 12 days, fully exposing the "short, flat, and fast" nature of such fraudulent side chain projects and highlighting the high-risk attributes of niche altcoins lacking regulation and value support.

In 2023, AI Coin (AI) emerged amidst the global artificial intelligence technology boom. The project team touted "Blockchain + AI" as a gimmick, claiming to create a decentralized intelligent computing power platform. They aimed to raise funds through tokens to facilitate technology implementation, attracting a large number of retail investors chasing trends.

The project has no substantial technological research and development achievements, and the white paper is hollow with multiple instances of plagiarism from other AI projects. It lacks the core code for building a computing power network and has not established partnerships with any artificial intelligence companies. The project team capitalized on the market's enthusiasm for AI concepts, promoting it extensively through social media and cryptocurrency communities, deliberately creating an illusion of token scarcity to induce investors to buy at high prices.

After the token price was pushed to a peak, the project team quickly sold off a large amount of their holdings to cash out, subsequently deleting community accounts and shutting down their official website, leaving behind a mess. The price of AI Coin, lacking value support, plummeted by over 99%, ultimately going to zero. Countless retail investors lost their investments, making it a typical case of a "hype-driven" air coin that exploited inexperienced investors.

In 2023, the Brain-Computer Interface coin (BCI) leveraged the global surge in brain-computer interface technology research and development to create a false narrative of 'blockchain + cutting-edge medical technology', claiming to bind technology with token value, attracting a large number of retail investors.

The project has no actual technology research and development team, has not disclosed any feasible application scenarios or technical patents, and relies solely on packaging technological concepts and launching exaggerated promotional materials to create momentum.

The project party manipulated the market to drive up the coin price, creating a short-term doubling effect to attract follow-up funds. Once the number of retail investors holding positions reached a certain scale, they quickly concentrated on selling off their holdings, triggering a cliff-like collapse in the coin price.

Due to the lack of value support and liquidity to absorb, the coin price ultimately approached zero, leaving many investors who bought in at high prices with significant losses.

This case is a typical model of 'hyped concept speculation + pump and dump', warning investors to be cautious of cryptocurrency projects without substantial technical support.

In 2024, the Aerospace Coin (SPACE) created a wave of speculation in the cryptocurrency market based on the false concept of digitalization in the aerospace industry and cooperation with aerospace agencies. Its operation methods are typical and highly deceptive.

Initially, the project team fabricated fake cooperation agreements and promoted videos featuring so-called experts in the aerospace field on social media and cryptocurrency communities, claiming that Aerospace Coin would connect to aerospace data rights confirmation, satellite launch crowdfunding, and other real businesses, creating an illusion of "high growth and low risk" for investors.

To quickly attract traffic, the project team also introduced incentive mechanisms such as "new user referral rewards" and "holding dividends," leveraging the social viral effect of retail investors, which in just two weeks raised the token price by over 20 times. When the price reached its peak, the project team, through anonymous accounts on decentralized exchanges, sold off more than 90% of their tokens in batches while shutting down official communities, removing the white paper, and deactivating the project’s official website.

As the selling pressure intensified, the price of Aerospace Coin plummeted by 99%, leaving countless retail investors with nothing. Subsequent investigations revealed that the so-called "aerospace cooperation" was entirely fictitious, and the expert videos were all fabricated. The project team had not even built any substantial underlying blockchain architecture; the entire project was essentially a "pump and dump" scam.

VeChain (VET) is a typical case of false collaboration and excessive marketing in the cryptocurrency world in 2019. The project focuses on the concept of blockchain + supply chain but lures investors in by fabricating collaboration hype, ultimately leading to massive user losses due to the collapse of false narratives and the outbreak of security vulnerabilities.

In 2019, the VeChain team boldly claimed to have reached deep cooperation with top enterprises and institutions such as Delta Airlines and Oxford University, stating that they would leverage blockchain technology to achieve the commercialization of supply chain traceability. Related positive news led to a significant short-term increase in VET coin price.

However, subsequent media investigations revealed that these collaborations were either only framework intentions with no substantial progress or belonged to false advertising, and the so-called deep cooperation was merely marketing rhetoric concocted by the team to hype the coin price.

After the scandal of false collaboration brewed, the price of VeChain began to decline continuously. To make matters worse, in December 2019, the VeChain Foundation wallet was exposed for internal operational errors, resulting in approximately 11 billion VET tokens being stolen, worth about 64 million USD at the time.

This security incident completely shattered market confidence, leading to a concentrated sell-off of tokens by many investors, causing the VET coin price to plummet over 70%, resulting in significant losses for numerous retail investors who bought at high prices.

Polkadot (DOT), as a popular public blockchain project in the 2020 cryptocurrency market, once sparked market frenzy with its narrative of "cross-chain interoperability." However, it became a typical case of harvesting due to token splitting and excessive speculation.

Before the project went live, the official announced the token split at a ratio of 1:100 under the pretext of "increasing token liquidity," which instantly created a buzz of market scarcity, attracting a large number of retail investors to follow suit. After the split, the price of DOT surged in the short term under capital push, once breaking through $40, and the project's valuation was inflated to hundreds of billions of dollars.

However, in reality, Polkadot's cross-chain technology has made slow progress, and core functions have yet to be realized, with the so-called "technological breakthroughs" remaining largely at the white paper level.

As market enthusiasm waned, capital began to sell off at high positions to cash out, leading to a cliff-like drop in the price, which fell to around $2, a decline of over 95%, leaving countless retail investors who bought at high prices deeply trapped.

More critically, the project team subsequently introduced a parallel chain slot auction mechanism, further manipulating market circulation by locking up a large number of DOT tokens, effectively harvesting long-term holders.

The predecessor of Radar Coin was Vpal, which launched in 2014. Since 2017, it has been packaged and promoted as a 'virtual currency,' but in reality, it is a financial fraud project that combines pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes.

The project falsely claims qualifications such as 'developed by the American Radar Laboratory' and 'backed by the central bank,' asserting that holding the coin can enjoy daily compound interest and that recruiting others can earn tiered rebates, relying on a pyramid-style promotion model for frenzied expansion.

Transactions can only be conducted on its self-built platform, with no access granted to any mainstream exchanges. Prices are entirely controlled by the operators, initially attracting investors by artificially inflating coin prices and later relying on new investments to fill the rebate gap for old users. In October 2021, the trading channel for Radar Coin suddenly closed, and the official website became inaccessible. The operating team absconded with the funds and blamed the collapse on adjustments in regulatory policies.

As of 2022, this scam has completely collapsed, involving over ten million users, with hundreds of billions in funds evaporating into thin air, leaving many investors with nothing. Subsequently, public security agencies in multiple regions have classified Radar Coin as a typical case of virtual currency crime and have filed investigations, with its fraudulent nature repeatedly warned about by officials.

The collapse of Radar Coin confirms that virtual currency projects 'without actual value support and relying on recruitment for profits' will inevitably face destruction due to a broken capital chain, serving as a wake-up call for investors: when faced with cryptocurrency projects that promise 'guaranteed profits and high rebates,' one must remain highly vigilant and not easily believe false advertising.

OURBIT (欧比特) is a typical case of exchange violations encroaching on user assets, with an involved amount reaching 460 million yuan, affecting nearly 30,000 investors. The platform uses "low fees, high leverage, instant withdrawals" as a gimmick, heavily promoting through social media and investment communities, targeting retail investors seeking short-term high returns.

In the early stages, the platform allows small amounts of funds to be deposited and withdrawn normally, creating a false impression of "safety and reliability" to attract users to increase their investment.

At the same time, it launched fake "mining investment" and "position rebate" activities, inducing investors to lock in large assets. Once the platform's accumulated funds reach a certain scale, it begins to reveal its true nature: first, it restricts user withdrawals under the pretext of "system maintenance" and "risk control upgrades," then significantly modifies trading rules, maliciously triggering the liquidation lines of high-leverage users and siphoning off user margins.

When some users attempt to defend their rights, they find that the platform is registered overseas, with no actual office address in the country, customer service unresponsive, and the official website taken down, making it extremely difficult to assert their rights. The core risk point of this case lies in the fact that the platform has not obtained any compliant financial licenses from any country or region and is considered an illegal virtual currency trading platform, with all its operational behaviors not protected by law.

This case warns investors that virtual currency trading itself carries extremely high legal risks, and one should not easily trust high return promises from unqualified platforms.

Africrypt was a sensational cryptocurrency scam in South Africa in 2021, involving approximately $3.6 billion, with over 65,000 investors affected, making it the largest cryptocurrency scam in African history.

Founded by the Ali and Ahmad brothers, it claimed to have an 'exclusive cryptocurrency mining algorithm' that could achieve stable monthly returns of 10%-20% through high-frequency trading, deliberately creating the image of a technical elite team.

Tiered Commission: A three-level distribution system of 'investor-broker-regional agent' was set up, allowing new investors to earn a commission of 5%-15% on the investment amounts of their downlines; in essence, it was a Ponzi scheme disguised as mining, using funds from new investors to pay interest to old investors.

Withdrawal Restrictions + Brainwashing Promotion: Initially, small withdrawals were smooth to attract users to invest more, but later, large withdrawals were restricted under the pretext of 'system maintenance' and 'market fluctuations', while offline seminars and social media brainwashing promoted the claim that 'holding long-term will surely double your investment'.

In April 2021, the Ali brothers suddenly announced that their 'wallet private keys were lost,' and subsequently fled with the funds, causing the platform to completely disappear.

Victims were spread across South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, and several other countries, with many investors losing their life savings.

Police investigations revealed that the so-called 'mining power' was purely fabricated, and the funds were not invested in any blockchain projects but were instead used to purchase luxury homes, cars, and goods.

Key Warnings

1. High-yield mining should be approached with caution: If there is no public mining power data and the 'mining projects' cannot be verified, it is likely a Ponzi scheme.

2. Tiered commission = essence of pyramid schemes: If a cryptocurrency project excessively emphasizes new investor rewards far exceeding normal investment returns, it must be avoided.

3. The risk of private key custody is extremely high: Entrusting the private keys of cryptocurrency assets to a third-party platform is equivalent to handing money over to a stranger; the risk of the platform running away or misappropriating funds is uncontrollable.