Reported by Btop360:
OneCoin is a Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency. It has been prosecuted for pyramid fraud and illegal fundraising, affecting victims worldwide. Its founder, Ruja Ignatova, is wanted for fraud and money laundering, making her a fugitive in one of the largest financial fraud cases globally. The U.S. government is currently offering a $5 million reward for her capture.
In 2013, Bulgarian Ruja Ignatova founded the so-called cryptocurrency OneCoin. Starting in 2014, she promoted OneCoin globally, often speaking at major conferences and attracting numerous investors. She promised high returns to investors and encouraged them to become distributors, earning commissions by recruiting others.
In October 2017, Ruja mysteriously disappeared, prompting a police investigation that revealed OneCoin as a massive financial fraud. In June 2022, Ruja was named one of the FBI’s top ten most wanted fugitives, with a reward of $100,000. By June 2024, the U.S. government increased the reward to $5 million, seeking information leading to her arrest.
In just three years, OneCoin attracted millions of participants globally. One reason for this rapid growth is the presence of a “powerful” leader behind every sophisticated scam, and OneCoin was no exception. According to OneCoin’s official introduction, Ruja held impressive credentials: a master’s degree in economics from the University of Konstanz in Bulgaria, dual doctorates in law from Oxford University and the University of Konstanz, and was CEO and CFO of Bulgaria’s largest fund management company, managing assets worth nearly 2 billion yuan.
With these titles, Ruja thrived in her global promotional tours. She always appeared in glamorous attire, expensive jewelry, and bright lipstick, resembling the Queen of England. Her fervent followers even gave her a resounding nickname: the “Crypto Queen.”
During her speeches, Ruja claimed that OneCoin was a new type of cryptocurrency, employing revolutionary blockchain technology that could become a globally accepted digital currency. She even dubbed it the “Bitcoin killer,” asserting that it inherited Bitcoin’s decentralization and algorithm-based supply determination, with KYC and transaction recording to gain government recognition.
However, OneCoin had nothing to do with blockchain technology. It lacked the necessary blockchain support, and its tokens did not exhibit decentralization characteristics. Instead, it relied on an SQL database for the website, which could be easily modified, contradicting the immutable nature of blockchain.
Additionally, according to official descriptions, OneCoin was a second-generation virtual currency, freely tradable and rapidly appreciating, enabling investors to “get rich overnight.” OneCoin adopted a membership system, requiring new members to pay an entry fee ranging from 130 to 36,330 euros to purchase activation codes, sponsored by existing members.
OneCoin’s profit model was divided into static and dynamic modes. In the static mode, members received a certain amount of OneCoin after paying different membership fees over a specific period. In the dynamic mode, members earned varying returns by recruiting new members.
The membership levels and profit models, whether viewed from static or dynamic perspectives, closely resembled pyramid schemes. In reality, OneCoin never listed on any exchange; it was a meticulously crafted pyramid scam. It had no real underlying technology or operational mechanism, relying solely on new investors’ funds to provide returns to earlier members. Ruja Ignatova and her associates controlled most of the OneCoin issuance, continually attracting new users to maintain high dividends. As the operation became increasingly unsustainable, OneCoin eventually collapsed, causing severe losses for investors.
Investigations revealed that OneCoin had over 3 million investors worldwide, raising approximately $5.6 billion. A significant portion of this came from China, with over 2 million participants accounting for two-thirds of the total, with transactions amounting to billions of dollars. The membership numbers were so large that the police found 79 hierarchical levels within the highest tier of the Chinese organization alone. Abroad, OneCoin’s membership hierarchy reached an astonishing 67,000 levels.
In 2014, OneCoin entered China under the guise of “investment.” The Chinese team established different membership levels: entry-level, intermediate, professional, executive, and tycoon. Entry-level investments were 975 yuan, offering 1,000 tokens and 50 milligrams of gold. The highest tycoon-level investment was 37,725 yuan, offering 60,000 tokens and 2,500 milligrams of gold.
OneCoin’s Chinese team promised that OneCoin would only rise and never fall, with a “considerable” increase in value. Additionally, if a OneCoin member introduced a new user, 60% of the new user’s spending would be distributed as bonuses to the existing user. Faced with such “enticing” returns, more people fell into the trap, pouring substantial funds into this scam, making China OneCoin’s largest market.
According to incomplete statistics, OneCoin’s total investment transactions in China amounted to billions of dollars, involving mostly ordinary people misled by OneCoin’s false advertising. They invested their savings or even borrowed money, only to lose everything.
Apart from ordinary investors, OneCoin also developed many “agents” in China. These individuals recruited others in various ways, earning commissions. Some agents dragged their relatives and friends into the scheme, destroying long-standing relationships. Reportedly, OneCoin’s core team in China numbered in the hundreds, using various methods to deceive investors and ultimately turning OneCoin into an egregious pyramid scheme.
Since 2017, victims have been filing reports, seeking compensation through legal means. However, many investors remain trapped, convinced that Ruja will reappear and lead OneCoin to glory. Meanwhile, the police have yet to locate Ruja Ignatova (with unconfirmed reports suggesting she may have been killed). Regardless, Ruja has become a “fugitive of the blockchain.”
Despite the collapse, some criminals in China continue to exploit people’s information gaps, aggressively promoting OneCoin and profiting from it. It is hoped that those still believing in OneCoin will soon wake up. OneCoin was a complete scam from the start, and its founder, Ruja Ignatova, is now a global fugitive. The $5 million reward from the U.S. government indicates the severity of the scam.
In addition, it is hoped that everyone will learn from this and avoid pyramid schemes and illegal financial activities, protecting their assets. With collective efforts, such scams can be eradicated, ensuring the healthy development of the cryptocurrency industry in the future.