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Topic: How to Identify a Ponzi (Read 102056 times)

legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
January 06, 2023, 08:15:29 PM
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/06/two-more-promoters-of-forcount-crypto-ponzi-scheme-arrested-charged-with-fraud/
It's hard/impossible to keep track of all the ponzis!  I'd expect more ponzis to unroll as we enter deep bear market.
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
December 16, 2022, 09:25:35 PM
Are there any big/famous NFT ponzis?  Eg. NFTs that say they will give a yield without having a business method other than printing more NFTs?
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
December 06, 2022, 07:52:35 PM
I think people didn't see it coming because the APYs were so low. Also there were legitimate use cases that could make a low-risk APY - notably lending your money to people going short or long (which I did from 2013-2017 on Bitfinex for > 10%/APR for USD (Bitcoin rates were far lower)).

It's possible that long term rates could be fixed (and not a ponzi) by arbitraging spot vs futures (short futures, buy spot).  During the bull market this was very profitable.
copper member
Activity: 2030
Merit: 1788
฿itcoin for all, All for ฿itcoin.
December 06, 2022, 07:40:53 PM
Celsius Network ended up being the most advanced ponzi we've seen so far!  Super slick CEO, US presence, institutional backers and lower interest rates made me believe that they had a valid business model!  They probably had a partially valid business model, especially when they could profit from the GBTC premium trade.

I ended up losing money to this (though less than I made on interest on Blockfi + Celsius). Though fortunately I had most of my funds on other sites, and they are now on my hardware wallet.

Capitalism is based on legalized theft (and legalized state violence).

I wonder why most people didn't see it coming. All those so-called DeFis and yield farms are not sustainable in the long run. Someone has to lose money even when they have been promised a certain APY right before locking up their funds.

My General rule is any platform or token that locks up your funds with the promise of a certain percentage profit daily, weekly, monthly or yearly is a Ponzi.
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
November 27, 2022, 11:07:46 PM
Celsius Network ended up being the most advanced ponzi we've seen so far!  Super slick CEO, US presence, institutional backers and lower interest rates made me believe that they had a valid business model!  They probably had a partially valid business model, especially when they could profit from the GBTC premium trade.

I ended up losing money to this (though less than I made on interest on Blockfi + Celsius). Though fortunately I had most of my funds on other sites, and they are now on my hardware wallet.

Capitalism is based on legalized theft (and legalized state violence).
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
May 11, 2022, 11:02:08 PM
UST and Luna.
Not a traditional ponzi, but it has ponzi elements.  Notably a promised stable return that was in excess of what it was earning.  A claim that it relied upon an algorithm - in fact it was more an appeal to authority (smart/rich people like it) and ultimately it's backed by assets that can go to zero.
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/terrausd/

Admittedly I liked it enough to almost invest (it seems like they have a valid use case and some adoption in South Korea?).  But fortunately I didn't.
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
December 07, 2021, 04:20:23 PM
Olympus DAO (aka Ohm) and its clones are ponzis.  They use an artificial lock up period to have new users pay off old users.  It's also only backed by a small fraction (I read that only 5% of Ohm was covered at one point) of hard assets - the rest of the backing is in Ohm which can, and likely eventually win, go to zero.

If someone knows of a good write-up that explains how the Ohm ponzis work, please post a link!

A lot of people are promoting these ponzis on Youtube and probably elsewhere on social media.  Which is illegal if you are in the US and many other countries.
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
May 21, 2021, 03:42:48 PM
SafeMoon is a scam not a ponzi.


Do most yield farms require a deposit fee? I was watching a video where they had a 4% deposit fee and promised an extremely high APR (like 1000%) but in a token which had a price that was going to fall to zero.  The presenter explained that it was essentially a ponzi scheme where the latecomers are paying the early birds with the deposit fee - and everyone is trying to sell the token before it is worthless.

If so, a lot of yield farms are ponzis.

legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
March 11, 2021, 05:30:43 PM
I've been neglecting this thread. Please post all the latest and greatest ponzis!

Friendly reminder that Hex is a SCAM, but not all scams are ponzis (and Hex doesn't appear to be a ponzi).

$6.9 million ponzi
https://www.coindesk.com/sec-enforcement-action-alleged-ponzi-scheme

legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
June 11, 2020, 11:34:31 PM
Do the Ontario securities regulators not understand what ponzis are?  Or is someone terribly misquoted?  A ponzi is not any ripoff scam, it has to pretend to be an investment that also delivers a return from the incoming funds.   Quadriga was a scam exchange, not an investment vehicle with a promised rate of return.

https://www.coindesk.com/quadriga-was-a-ponzi-scheme-ontario-securities-regulator-says
legendary
Activity: 1932
Merit: 1737
"Common rogue from Russia with a bare ass."
December 10, 2019, 08:38:02 PM
A ponzi scheme that made a charitable contribution to increase its reputation, wow.

"BitClub has long been an active player in the crypto space too. The pool claimed to receive $136,000 as part of an errant bitcoin transaction fee, of which it donated half to the Bitcoin Foundation in 2016. "
https://www.coindesk.com/us-arrests-3-in-alleged-crypto-mining-pool-fraud-scheme

For five years I've been waiting to read that..... Grin

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitclub-network-mlm-promises-false-testimonials-and-pos-coin-avoid-1152263
https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/press-release/file/1224926/download

legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
December 10, 2019, 08:22:32 PM
A ponzi scheme that made a charitable contribution to increase its reputation, wow.

"BitClub has long been an active player in the crypto space too. The pool claimed to receive $136,000 as part of an errant bitcoin transaction fee, of which it donated half to the Bitcoin Foundation in 2016. "
https://www.coindesk.com/us-arrests-3-in-alleged-crypto-mining-pool-fraud-scheme
legendary
Activity: 1867
Merit: 1023
August 19, 2019, 10:37:16 PM
No idea who is behind this website, but lots of ponzis and other scams are profiled.
https://behindmlm.com
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