When Billions Vanished: The Wildest Crypto Scams That Shocked the Market

Crypto promised financial freedom, but it also became a playground for the biggest swindlers in history. Here’s the dark side nobody wants to talk about.

OneCoin ($4B Stolen): Ruja Ignatova convinced millions that her “next Bitcoin” existed—except it didn’t. Zero blockchain, pure Ponzi. She vanished in 2017 and is still on the FBI’s most-wanted list. Absolute madness.

Squid Game Token: FOMO hit different in 2021. The token pumped to $2,856 per coin riding Netflix hype, then the devs literally disabled selling and drained liquidity. Price tanked to zero. People got rug-pulled while watching a Netflix show.

AnubisDAO: $60 million vaporized in under 24 hours. Investors threw money in thinking it was a legit OlympusDAO fork. Nope. One of the fastest exits in rug pull history.

Thodex Exchange: Turkish CEO Faruk Özer pulled off a $2 billion heist in 2021, fleeing to Albania with user funds. Courts hit him with 11,196 years—literally one of the longest sentences ever handed down.

Terra/Luna ($40B Crater): Do Kwon’s algorithmic stablecoin UST depegged, wiping out $40 billion in days. Not a typical rug pull—more like catastrophic mismanagement on steroids. Do Kwon got arrested in Montenegro and is still fighting legal battles.

BitConnect & SafeMoon: Classic lending scams promising guaranteed returns. $2.4 billion and $200+ million lost respectively. SafeMoon’s CEO and execs got arrested for straight-up fraud in 2023.

The Pattern: From pseudo-blockchain Ponzis to algorithmic stablecoins imploding, the common thread is the same—promises nobody can keep, and billions vanishing overnight. DYOR, verify on-chain, and never trust hype alone.