Not even the world of Cypto. Well, it is how scams work in the world of Crypto. Freeway, Crypto Platform That Promised 43% Returns, Halts Withdrawals
A $100 million rug-pull.
Freeway, a UK-based Crypto platform that promised annual returns up to a mind-boggling 43%, halted withdrawals on Sunday, according to a notice published to the company’s website. Freeway’s native cryptocurrency, which goes by the ticker FWT, plummeted 74% following the announcement and, to top it all off, the Freeway website appears to be scrubbing the names and photos of some executives.
They halted trading 1 day after a Twitter user accused them of running a Ponzi scheme and telling people to head for the exits. Freeway basically closed their doors and disappeared.
Real markets cannot guarantee 43% return.
The other cautionary tale is Mango Markets. They lost $114 million, not to a hack exactly, someone found a weakness in their "market's" conditions and exploited it. Mango Markets was in danger of shutting down, but Avraham Eisenberg gave the bulk of the money - $67 million - back, so that the company would not be insolvent.
I'm not saying that you can't make money in cryptocurrencies. You can, if you know what you are doing. Most people don't, and they see "guaranteed 43% returns!" and believe that it is real.
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true.
I'm not sure why any of this surprises me. Well the boldness of lies is a bit amazing. But Americans have been looking for the easy out for a long time now. The Dot Com insanity of the '90s. (It doesn't matter the widgets.com only has the revenue of your average dry-cleaner, they are definitely worth more than GM!) Then there was the "You can't lose money in Real Estate" mania that blew up in 2008. And now everything Crypto. It isn't only investing of course. Actually get a college degree that requires work? "I'm following my bliss!" And then people are distraught to realize that following their bliss resulted in a great deal of student debt and no marketable skills.
I don't think it is just Americans, these kind of swindles are world wide and historically they go way back before there was an America.
ReplyDeleteI know. I've read Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds but they seem to come with more frequency in the past 40 years.
DeleteIn the 1960s and 70s, even in the 1980s the way to get ahead in America was to get a good job and work hard. Whether that was to be an electrical engineer or an electrician or a doctor or teacher or whatever. Hard work was key.
Sometime in the mid 1990s it became about gaming the system. Well, and following your bliss, because God forbid that you should have to work hard and save and invest. That isn't cool to talk about at parties. Or something