Hong Kong's MyCoin Bitcoin börs stängd 387 milj USD borta
Friday, 13 February 2015 21:04
White TV hade tidigt varnat för Bitcoin. Hong Kong's MyCoin Bitcoin börs har nu, 6.2.15, kollapsat med 387 miljoner USD som försvunnit. "For perspective, bitcoin's entire market cap today stands at around USD$3bn.
The issue came to light on Friday when about 30 people claiming to be victims of the company's actions petitioned a local member of the Legislative Council, Leung Yiu-chung." rapporterar CoinDesk.
"Ponzi scheme suspected
Adding to the mystery are reports the company never operated as a genuine bitcoin business at all. Testimonies from customers describe an operation more like a Ponzi scheme that used the veneer of bitcoin trading as its lure.
One local woman was quoted as saying:
"We were told by those at higher tiers [of the scheme] that we can get our money back if we find more new clients."
Adding to the business' pyramid-like feel were promises of cash prizes or Mercedes-Benz cars if customers could recruit new investors, said a report in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
Customers were never presented with receipts and were led to deposit their newly-acquired coins at a separate site to earn interest.
MyCoin had promised several months ago that it would soon be listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, and according to photos posted online, also operated a bitcoin ATM.
Customers were promised returns of HK$1m in four months, and had been pressured into buying bitcoin-based contracts by real estate agents, insurance agents and law firm clerks. But after slowing down the release of payments and changing the rules to make it progressively more difficult to withdraw, the exchange's office boarded up its doors for "renovations" last month, the report says."
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