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If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – and certainly seems to have been the case of BitConnect, a cryptocurrency project that has been accused of cheating millions of investors
BitConnect, touted as a "self-regulated financial system" "which is part of the" cryptocurrency revolution ", has used many words of order and the clamor of celebrities to attract investors to participate and has also offered an incredibly high interest rate of at least 1% per day
Investors would "lend" Bitcoin (BTC) funds to various projects and these funds were converted into the platform currency, BCC.
Divyesh Darji, the Indian chief of BitConnect and is believed to be the main promoter of the scheme, has reportedly been arrested by the Gujarat Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after arriving in Dubai during his trip from Ahmedabad .
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According to the local publication of the Financial Express, the forces of the order believe that the promoters of BitConnect have earned a crore of Rs 1.14, about $ 14.5 million, from "thousands of investors" before the exchange closed "
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BitConnect launched after the Prime Minister Indian Narendra Modi has demonetized 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes in the region.
In 2016, 90% of the country's financial transactions were made in cash and the change was apparently ordered (.PDF) to crack down on corruption, counterfeiters and the so-called "black money", otherwise known as undeclared income. [19659003] The unexpected changes have caused economic chaos. Keeping their businesses afloat to banks that try to cope with flooding customers, the upheaval of India has been severe – and while the country has crossed, at the time, the option of a currency digital outside the reach of the government may have been extremely tempting.
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However, the dream of controlling the currency outside of the government's demonetization efforts and gaining interest for that day did not last .
In January, BitConnect closed its exchange platform, with all the loans offered on the released platform – but all were converted to BCC rather than converted into the original Bitcoin of investors.
The price of BCC at the time was $ 363.62. However, now the system has closed and the founders are silent, the currency is worth $ 0.67, making the virtual asset effectively useless and leaving investors seriously out of pocket.
"The company was registered in the UK and had an office in Surat," said DGP Ashish Bhatia of the CID crime. "They launched their" BitConnect coins "immediately after demonetization, promoted the company on social media and held gala functions in cities around the world, attracting investors with interest and monthly incentives of 60% in the form of" reference interests "
The only trade that still allows trade in BCC is Trade Satoshi, which intends to sell the currency back in September.
BitConnect cited bad press, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and scrutiny of the US regulator as reasons for closure
