Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and remains the largest and best known to date. The increase in its value from several cents to hundreds of dollars per coin in mid-2016 has increased investor excitement. Cryptocurrencies are a fresh idea that has only recently made its mark with the mainstream. A lot of people have sought to participate in this new opportunity.
In mid-2016, a woman named Ruja Ignatova told everyone that she invented a cryptocurrency to compete with Bitcoin. According to her, OneCoin is “the Bitcoin Killer. In two years no one will talk about Bitcoin anymore!” She persuaded them to invest billions of dollars.
CryptoQueen Ruja Ignatova, leader of OneCoin
From August 2014 to March 2017, over 4 billion euros were invested in dozens of countries. The British people spent nearly 30 million euros on OneCoin in the first six months of 2016, about 2 million euros a week.
Source: Leaked OneCoin accounts
Then, two years ago, Ruja Ignatova, nicknamed CryptoQueen, disappeared and left a troubled landscape that continues to this day. There are many investigations about OneCoin. There are many victims suing OneCoin. There have also been people involved in this scam being arrested and charged with criminal liability, including CryptoQueen’s younger brother and OneCoin co-founder, Konstantin Ignatov.
Today, the OneCoin website is not accessible.
DNS records show that although the company still owns the website domain, it is currently under investigation.
Put simply, DNS records are the point where the website address (onecoin.eu, in this case) moves to a corresponding server.
Since 24 hours ago, OneCoin’s DNS entry for their website has been moved to ‘server hold’.
According to EurID, the server hold status means “the domain name is registered to the domain owner as shown in WHOIS, but is temporarily unavailable (ie the website and email are not working) and is being regulated lookup”.
According to old WHOIS data, onecoin.eu is the only OneCoin related website registered with the name of OneCoin Ltd.
The remainder was registered (sometimes the same) by a representative for one of the following casing companies:
- Artefix Europe Ltd. (Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, Sofia, Bulgaria)
- One Network Services Ltd. (Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, Sofia, Bulgaria)
- Bigpay Ltd. (Karnigradska Street, Sofia, Bulgaria)
- One Payments Ltd. (Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, Sofia, Bulgaria)
- One Forex Eood (Tzar Osvoboditel Blvd, Sofia, Bulgaria)
Status code ‘server hold’ is set by the domain registry, in this case, EurID.
Latest analysis on OneCoin Ponzi
There have been many surveys on OneCoin and analysis of how it works. The most recent self-titled analysis “OneCoin Ponzi Point Test 3 – Mining when Blockchain is down” has found absolute evidence against the OneCoin scam.
The purpose of this analysis is to check the consistency and completeness of block and transaction data visible in the Blockchain explorer on the OneLife backend website, during the Blockchain (explorer) downtime to maintenance.
Consistency with the information presented by the company on www.onecoin.eu and the statements of Ruja Ignatova and OneCoin CEO Pierre Arens in interviews and an online seminar were also checked.
The test came up with some conclusions about OneCoin, of which the 3 most important points are:
- Firstly, Blockchain OneCoin is just a ‘knock-off’ of the Bitcoin Blockchain. In other words, this is a Blockchain simulation program
- Second, find evidence exposing the scam of CryptoQueen that all transactions made by OneCoin members are visible on the Blockchain.
- Third, there is no relationship between ‘mining transactions’ on the network, which creates OneCoins in OneCoin Accounts, with block and transaction data, displayed on Cryptocurrency / Blockchain pages.
Following the cash flow
It’s hard to know how much money has been put into OneCoin. The leaked documents show that there were 4 billion euros between August 2014 and March 2017. There are also several sources reporting that it could amount to 15 billion euros.
One page on OneCoin website
For a few months, a French journalist named Maxime Grimbert tried to extract the activities of OneCoin, collecting as many company names and bank account details as possible.
Following the cash flow is quite difficult. In an interconnected global economy, wealth can simply disappear and you’ll eventually pursue darkness.
In an ideal world, regulators will act to protect consumers from scams like OneCoin. But authorities around the world have been slow to respond, in part because the entire cryptocurrency sector is relatively new.
The fact that OneCoin operates internationally also creates difficulties for the authorities. In August of this year, the City of London police ended a two-year investigation of OneCoin. They concluded:
“There is not enough evidence to support criminal proceedings against UK-based individuals, although the force has never determined that there is no interest surrounding OneCoin. This force has provided assistance to foreign law enforcement partners…”
Until last week, it seemed that OneCoin headquarters in the UK was still open for business, and people are continuing to promote this scam coin.
Read more:
- OneCoin: Mark Scott Earned $50M For For Laundering $400M
- David Pike, Mark Scott’s OneCoin Money Laundering Partner Was Officially Arrested