The PlusToken Ponzi
- Market Structure
PlusToken was a massive cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme and wallet platform that started in 2018, mainly attracting investors in China and South Korea by promising high monthly rewards for depositing crypto like BTC and ETH into its app. At its peak, the scam collected **billions of dollars worth of crypto — estimates range from about $2 billion to nearly $3 billion (and possibly more when considering additional movements), making it one of the largest crypto frauds ever. The scheme began to collapse in mid-2019 when investors struggled to withdraw funds, and the operators abruptly emptied billions of dollars of assets and posted messages suggesting they were gone. Subsequent arrests of suspects occurred in June 2019 and later in 2020.
Incident Details
- Type
- FRAUD
- Funds Lost
- $2B
- Status
- Partial recovery
Operators prosecuted; assets partially seized by authorities