The fall of Bitconnect was as sure as evening follows day. A pyramid scheme wrapped inside a Ponzi with a aspect order of WTF, Bitconnect was as loopy because it was calamitous. The solely miracle was that the racket lasted so lengthy. When the ringleaders shut up store on Wednesday, inflicting the token to plummet from $290 to $eight, that should have been the tip of the matter. Remarkably although, BCC continues to be actively traded, and has even recovered a few of its worth. The purpose for the mini revival? Bitconnect is launching an ICO.
Meet the New Boss, Same because the Old Boss
It was no secret, previous to its collapse, that Bitconnect was operating an ICO. Its Bitconnect X web site has been accepting contributions since January 10. When Bitconnect closed its doorways every week later, after its authentic web site had been offline for days, it was assumed that Bitconnect X would comply with go well with. After all, nobody can be gullible sufficient to get fooled twice, certainly. Apparently so. Not solely is the Bitconnect ICO going forward as deliberate, however buyers are actively throwing cash at it.
When Bitconnect introduced that it was closing its lending platform on Wednesday, $1.5 billion price of worth was wiped off its market cap in lower than two hours. Those losses weren’t borne by the corporate although – it was bizarre buyers who have been disregarded of pocket. Bitconnect’s execs have been doing simply effective, sitting on the stash of bitcoin they’d pocketed from buyers within the months prior. But then, as Twitter merchants eagerly watched to see the primary altcoin drop to zero in actual time, one thing unusual occurred. BCC stopped falling and began to climb.
The Ponzi Scheme That Just Won’t Die
On January 17, BCC was the worst performing cryptocurrency on Coinmarketcap. Incredibly, 24 hours later, it was the very best performing coin on the location, up 410% in 24 hours to succeed in $43 a token. This revival could have been of little comfort to buyers, who have been nonetheless closely within the purple. Nevertheless, it confirmed that in opposition to all purpose, folks have been nonetheless shopping for the coin. In the previous 24 hours, $18 million of BCC has been traded and a coin that was written off as being totally nugatory is now altering arms for $28.
The purpose for that is BCC can be utilized to buy BCCX, the brand new Bitconnect token that’s being launched by way of an ICO. Each BCCX is priced at $50. To reiterate then: Bitconnect duped hundreds of buyers, promoting them BCC cash at as much as $290 apiece. It then crashed the market, and is now encouraging the identical buyers to trade their BCC for BCCX at a ratio of two:1 in an occasion that should be dubbed The Halvening.
Lambs to the Slaughter
By late 2017, it was obvious to Bitconnect that the Ponzi scheme they’d constructed was on the verge of toppling. Not content material with driving off into the sundown with their ill-gotten beneficial properties, they determined to have one other chew of the cherry. The Bitconnectx.co area was registered on the penultimate day of 2017, and the crowdsale commenced lower than two weeks later. The firm is in search of to promote 11.76 million BCCX, which can earn it $588 million. It will also retain one other $145 million in cash, bringing its whole property to $733 million.
The new-look Bitconnect X platform, for the report, “allows you to earn interest for helping maintain security on the network by holding BCCX in a Qt Desktop wallet that is attached to the network and allowing transactions to flow through it”. Which sounds suspiciously like Bitconnect mk I.
One of the primary duties on the Bitconnect X roadmap is to achieve a list on Coinmarketcap, which shouldn’t be an issue, as the location had no qualms about closely selling the earlier rip-off. After that it’s going to spend the summer season performing imprecise duties equivalent to “adding more security layers in Exchange platform”, presumably whereas Bitconnect execs put as a lot distance between themselves and their collectors as doable.
Bitconnect Keeps Playing While the Titanic Sinks
In the times after the collapse of Bitconnect, the corporate’s social media account continued glibly tweeting bitcoin information, as if nothing had occurred. Each new story it posted was met with tons of of thunderous replies, till the account lastly broke its silence to audaciously challenge the next declare:
Before cryptocurrency was invented, gullible people have been defrauded by way of Nigerian financial institution scams. After the mark had misplaced virtually every part, and the princes’ fortune they’d been promised had didn’t materialize, the scammer would go in for one final trick. They’d “come clean” with the sufferer and confess that they too had been duped. For a small payment, they might get the mark’s a reimbursement, and set every part proper.
Amazingly, many victims, out of desperation, would take them up on this provide. The majority of Bitconnect X’s buyers would be the similar souls who misplaced hundreds in Bitconnect. Despite all of the warning indicators, they’re prepared to go for broke and pray that this time they will get out earlier than the pyramid collapses. In the phrases of Winston Churchill, by no means was a lot owed by so many to so few.
How lengthy do you suppose Bitconnect X will final? Let us know within the comments part below.
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