Transactions Worth $240 Million Moved Through BTC Being Linked To Alleged Scam

By Rishma Banerjee

More than $240 million were reportedly moved through Bitcoin (BTC) on August 17 and it is being suspected that the transactions were related to the alleged crypto project from China, PlusToken.

A Twitter account by the handle, “Whale Alert” which is dedicated to reporting large cryptocurrency transactions like these — posted on Saturday that four transactions amounting to 22,923 BTC were made, which were probably the proceeds of PlusToken.

The four transactions were 6,000 BTC, 5,000 BTC, 7,000 BTC and 4,923 BTC respectively. The monitor admitted that, while the transactions are likely associated with the purported scheme, they are unconfirmed.

PlusToken may very well become the largest crypto exit scam, till date, with an estimated loss of around $2.9 billion. It had fraudulently claimed that it could deliver wallet holders a return on investment between 8% and 16% per month, after a deposit of $500 in crypto assets.

In addition to its business of storing crypto funds, it also deployed a system, closely resembling a Ponzi scheme in order to incentivize the recruitment of new members with monetary rewards. Users were given a yield on their crypto that was based on them bringing new customers to the firm. Recruiters were given different titles, like: “Big Boy,” “Great God,” and “Creation of World.” with each level rewarding a different bonus amount.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain forensics company Ciphertrace has found evidence to prove that the token platform is associated with several Chinese nationals, the Chinese police and the company’s co-founders — a South Korean man operating under the alias of “Kim Jung Un” and a Russian known only as “Leo.”
Launched in early 2018, PlusToken was already suspected to be a pyramid scheme since September, last year. In June, the company triggered a wide-ranging panic among Chinese and Korean investors when some users reported that they were not being able to withdraw funds from the wallets. At that time, the issues were then brushed off as a “hacker attack.” Even on August 5, the company posted an update claiming that its platform would be functioning as normal and withdrawals would resume soon.