OVERVIEW

Ten Of The Most Infamous Failed Crypto Projects 🫢

You know, I really wanted to throw in some DeFi content in this one, but after digging through all of the crap that crypto has gone through and picking which failure deserves the spotlight over another, I was running out of space.

So here’s an issue dedicated entirely to ten of the most infamous failed crypto projects ever. 📽️ 

NEWS
Ten Of The Most Infamous Failed Crypto Projects and Their Downfalls - BitConneeeeeeeect ❌ 

BitConnect - crypto’s most memeable Ponzi nightmare - managed to rope investors in with promises so blatantly insane you'd think folks would've sniffed it out immediately. 👃 

Nope.

At its peak in late 2017, BitConnect’s BCC token pumped to a whopping $3.4 billion market cap, pulling in around $2.4 billion from hopeful degenerates chasing the “proprietary trading bot” dream - claiming daily compounded returns of 1% (that’s around 3,700% a year, FYI).

Shocker, there was no bot - just the classic Ponzi shuffle of using fresh money to pay the early suckers.

Regulators finally caught on in January 2018, shutting the whole thing down practically overnight, vaporizing BCC’s price by 90%. Legal drama followed swiftly: Founder Satish Kumbhani is still hiding (seriously, still missing), while Glenn Arcaro, BitConnect’s top American hype-man, got slapped with a 38-month prison sentence and a $24 million restitution bill.

But the man behind one of crypto’s biggest memes, the man who is famous for BitConneeeeeeeect, Carlos Matos, thankfully time has been more generous. Long story short, he’s a retail trader who got into BitConnect early who also got rugged. Ya, there’s a little more details to Matos - but he’s not the super villain people thought he was. 🦹 

Bonus: the best BitConneeeeeect remix ever 👇️ 

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NEWS
Terra (LUNA) 🤦 

Terra’s LUNA and UST: crypto’s favorite cautionary tale of how to turn $60 billion into ashes overnight. 🌑 

Founded by one of crypto’s most punchable faces Do ‘The Con’ Kwon, Terra’s big selling point was Anchor’s juicy 20% yields on stablecoins, which, HUGE SPOILER, were not sustainable.

In May 2022, the $1 peg on UST dropped harder than Lebron James being struck by a phantom elbow from five feet away, triggering a hyperinflation death spiral that took LUNA’s market cap from $40 billion down to just $500 million in a single day.

And just so I’m clear: FTX’s collapse was bad. Bernie Madoff was bad.

But over time, 94% of Madoff’s ponzi has been recovered. FTX is similar in recovery (still going on).

But Terra’s collapse? Nope. $60 billion gone. Poof.

Investors watched their "sure thing" portfolios collapse into dust, flooding forums with desperate posts about lost homes and life savings.

Do Kwon went from smug crypto celeb calling critics “poor” to a multi-country fugitive, eventually busted in Montenegro with fake passports in March 2023.

After some US vs. South Korea legal kerfuffle over who get’s Con Kwon, he’s in the US now, facing 130-years. 👮

NEW
OneCoin 🪙

OneCoin’s $4 billion hustle might be the greatest crypto con that wasn’t even crypto. 😡 

Masterminded by Bulgaria’s Ruja Ignatova, aka ‘Cryptoqueen,’ OneCoin duped millions with its promise to dethrone Bitcoin through aggressive multi-level marketing across 175 countries.

Turns out it had no blockchain, no market value, just a pure pyramid scheme masquerading as revolutionary tech. Ignatova ghosted spectacularly in 2017 - boarding a flight to Greece and never resurfacing, earning herself a cozy spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted list with a $100K bounty on her head.

She’s still on it btw:

Co-founder Karl Greenwood got caught, admitting he personally pocketed over $300 million, netting a 20-year prison sentence. 

Ruja’s brother Konstantin cooperated with authorities, while victims worldwide are stuck with worthless digital monopoly money. If you’re into podcasts, the BBC’s "Missing Cryptoqueen" series covers the mess perfectly, turning OneCoin’s fraudulent saga into peak crypto pop culture. 👑

NEWS
Squid Game Token 🦑 

What better way to honor a violent dystopian Netflix show than creating a rug-pull token that wipes out thousands of investors? 📺️ 

Enter Squid Game Token, launched late October 2021 at $0.01 and mooning to a staggering $2,861 within a week. But surprise, the anonymous devs had set up a no-sell "anti-dump" mechanism - a giant red flag many conveniently ignored - before abruptly rug-pulling on November 1, draining $3.3 million from the liquidity pool.

SQUID cratered from thousands of dollars to zero instantly, financially eliminating over 43,000 holders faster than a game of red-light-green-light. To date, nobody knows who did it, leaving investors empty-handed and crypto cynics endlessly amused. 😆

NEWS
Confido 🤫 

Confido was a blink-and-you-missed-it ICO scam of 2017. 👁️

This decentralized escrow wannabe raised $374,000, briefly saw tokens pop to about $2, then pulled a Houdini mid-November after citing mysterious “legal issues.”

Confido's entire digital footprint vanished overnight - no website, no Twitter, no Medium - leaving investors holding worthless tokens.

Reddit sleuths soon revealed its CEO and team profiles were outright fabrications, complete with stolen identities. No charges ever surfaced, the scammers vanished, and the exchange TokenLot eventually refunded some users from its own pocket, while most investors simply got wrecked.

Ironically named after "confidence," Confido proved how gullible crypto could get in peak ICO frenzy. 🙄

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NEWS
Verge (XVG) 🕵️

Here’s another golden oldie from 2017. Remember Verge, the privacy coin that promised the moon but got hacked repeatedly instead? 🤔 

Originally "DogecoinDark," Verge surged in late 2017 thanks to hype-man John McAfee tweeting it as un-losable, sending XVG from sub-cent obscurity to $0.25 almost overnight.

When Verge teased a “game-changing partnership,” the community forked over millions only to find out it was... Pornhub.

The announcement tanked the price 30% immediately. Even worse, hackers exploited Verge twice in 2018, stealing millions of coins in embarrassingly simple attacks, sending the price spiraling down over 90% within a year.

I guess not exactly fraud, just terrible tech, dumb hype, and massive overpromising. And it’s still around with a $100 million-ish market cap. 🧠

NEWS
BitPetite 🤌 

BitPetite: your classic crypto Ponzi scheme dressed up as a Bitcoin mixing service. 🧁 

Promising absurd daily returns of up to 3.6%, it roped thousands in mid-2017 (2017 is a theme), then vanished overnight in October with millions in investor funds.

Users suddenly found themselves staring at an error page - no withdrawals, no support, just radio silence. Despite attempts to track the anonymous scammers' wallets, no arrests followed.

BitPetite's abrupt exit (around the same time as BitConnect’s implosion) marked the end of crypto’s peak ICO fed Ponzi era, cementing the lesson that guaranteed profits are always guaranteed lies. 😐️

NEWS
Prodeum 🤣 

Prodeum’s legacy isn’t the cash it stole (just $11 - not a typo, eleven bucks), but how it spectacularly trolled the internet.

This Lithuanian ICO promised blockchain-based produce tracking, but after barely raising anything, the founders ditched the project in January 2018. Infamously, their site displayed just one elegant word: penis.

This juvenile exit prank instantly became crypto legend, making Prodeum an unforgettable meme highlighting ICO degeneracy. Turns out the “team” was entirely fake, using stolen identities of unsuspecting folks - probably hoping to scam millions but settling for a petty prank instead. 🍆 

NEWS
PayCoin (XPY) 🫰

PayCoin was Josh Garza’s disastrous 2014 crypto gamble, promising a $20 price floor backed by an imaginary $100 million fund. 😶 

Investors bought the pitch, sending XPY briefly up to $15.92, but the bottom quickly fell out as reality set in. PayCoin tanked below a dollar by mid-2015, vaporizing millions in investor funds and landing Garza a 21-month prison stint plus a $9.2 million restitution bill.

PayCoin's outrageous promises ("never below $20!") became courtroom comedy gold, marking one of crypto’s first big legal reckonings for blatant, old-school fraud. 🚨 

NEWS
Titanium Blockchain 🧱 

Titanium Blockchain’s Michael Stollaire figured if you’re gonna lie, go big - faking partnerships with PayPal, Disney, Verizon, and even the Federal Reserve. 😱 

The hold-my-beer of lies raised $21 million on hype alone, but the SEC quickly called his bluff, freezing Titanium’s ICO in 2018. TBAR tanked instantly.

Stollaire later admitted everything - fake testimonials, fake partnerships, even using investor funds for his Hawaiian condo. He landed a 4-year, 3-month prison sentence in March 2023. 📆 

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