Bitconnect (BCC) to be Delisted from Last Cryptocurrency Exchange
The ponzi scheme was invented almost one and a half centuries ago in the 1880s. Since then, with the advent of the internet, the trading of securities has accelerated from multi-day transactions to nearly instant trades.So too has the "Oldest trick in the book" been re-envisioned to fool new investors.
Almost exactly one year ago, the iconic image of Carlos Matos (hey hey hey!) spread like wildfire across the internet. His exuberant, roaring optimism at the first (and last) Bitconnect Annual Ceremony (I highly recommend watching this) starkly contrasted with professional analyst opinions, all of whom unanimously opined that it was a total scam. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First of all, what the heck is Bitconnect?
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| BCC PRICE CHART |
Launched in February of 2016, the creators of Bitconnect had more in mind for their coin than just as currency. They created a complementary investing program: Lend your bitcoin to us (which was sold and converted to BCC, this becomes important later), and you will receive 1% interest per day, also paid out in BCC.
People flocked from all over to Bitconnect, after all, just a $1000 investment, left to collect interest for 1 year, would transform into $38,000, a 38-fold annual return. With endorsements from celebrities like Mike Tyson and Ashton Kutcher, it's no wonder the price of BCC exploded from a few dollars to a peak price of $400 in the span of a year.
However, the incredibly successful launch story of BCC was about to take a darker turn. Authorities had gotten wind of the outrageous 1% per day interest and served them Cease and Desist letters in Texas and North Carolina. The letters primarily asserted their failure to register and obtain the proper licenses to sell securities in their respective states, but also pointed out a lack of transparency on their business model, including assets, liabilities, and risks. In all but name, they were accused of fraud.
Just a few days later, on January 16th, the Bitconnect investing platform closed down. Even as investors frantically withdrew and sold their BCC balances, the price plummeted from $400 to $200, to $100, to $30, to $16, and finally leveled out at ~$0.05. Many investors ended up with far less than their initial investments, and the organizers vanished into thin air
On Reddit, posts about the news read like horror stories:
Soon after, the subreddit went private, hiding the last of the posts from the world.
Today, BCC has been scheduled (Sept 10, 2018) to be delisted from the final exchange still trading it: TradeSatoshi . Without the interest generated by the scam, it's trading volume has shrunk to just $10,000 daily. After all, it is little more than new name on bitcoin software. After the delisting, trading BCC will become nearly impossible, and the saga of Bitconnect will finally be over.
Here's some questions for you:
What do you recommend to prevent this from happening again?
What do you invest in/what is your general strategy? hopefully not bitconnect
I remember when Bitcoin came out. My brother used it to order something. I thought it was innovative but unreliable, and I guess I was right. It's horrible that so many people lost so much (like the person who said he was shaking), but that's capitalism. This could be prevented by thoroughly researching the product or company that is being invested in. With any serious investment, I think it is crucial to know as much as possible about the product. Then you can understand certain trends and follow current events associated with your investment to maximize your profit.
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ReplyDeleteI think following the basis of "if it's too good to be true, it probably is". When it comes to the promise of 1% interest daily, that is just impossible to provide and deliver. I think it was fairly obvious just from Mr. Bitconneeeeeeeeeeect, that the entire business was a little sketch. I think if you want to avoid getting scammed out of your money, you should use some logic and understand no business can offer you 1% interest daily. I personally had parts of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and found that there was a wonderful little spike back in May, and then after that it collapsed. So my strategy for crypto is to always be watchful of it, to keep your eye on it and watch for trends and to continually being cautious.
ReplyDeleteInvesting in this one a joke. It simply was too good to be true. The money that they had earned initially could have been invested in already stable stocks. However, the ones that had thought this actually was true would be the ones that were the greediest. Cryptocurrency, although initially a splendid idea that could have grown really far, has its limitations. The best way to avoid being scammed is to invest smart.
ReplyDeleteI think that this type of investment is by nature unstable and all together a bad idea. When you invest in cryptocurrency, there is nothing to back it other than a loose group of people who think that it has value. Anyone who invests a large amount of money into these cryptocurrencies is not making a very good choice as can be seen with this story itself and other cryptocurrencies that decreased in value drastically in very short amounts of time.
ReplyDelete-Stefan Veizades
It is difficult for people to trust digital currencies since they're volatile: they can jump up and down 30 percent within a 24-hour period. For an average consumer, bitcoin is just a number. It is not something they can hold in their hand as they can do with paper bills. Also, it is entirely possible that another technology will appear which can accomplish everything bitcoin does with more speed and efficiency, rendering bitcoin obsolete. My suggestion would be to not invest in digital currencies altogether. Like the others above have stated, digital currencies come with too many risks. It is better to invest in something safer like treasuries as the government backs them.
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