It's become somewhat common knowledge that the crypto market can be very unstable at times. This volatility, combined with the challenging Bitcoin development, has many investors wondering about the future of this market.
Some crypto investors have gotten so invested in the story that they are now searching for clues that might indicate that a Ponzi scheme is being pulled by another crypto player.
For practical purposes, it makes sense to store all of your funds in a wallet, but it’s also a nice asset to have and remember, so you can keep a healthy balance in your hot wallet, no matter how volatile the price of bitcoin is. Also, if you are looking for the best trading starter, we recommend using bitcoin wallets .
However, new money always enters the market and a quick investor loss can lead to a temporary panic.
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1. Onecoin: $5 billion scam
With Onecoin, the story starts with big claims. Onecoin promised a new type of cryptocurrency in which investors received an initial dividend in return for their initial investment. Wallets protect your coins by completely locking them away from the internet. You can’t even access your funds with a cellphone. You can’t restore your private keys from a cold wallet if you forget your password.
2. Bitconnect: $43 million fraud
Bitconnect was a relatively unknown cryptocurrency that promised a more lucrative share of the cryptocurrency market than other big players such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. This story went viral after one of the main promoters on Twitter claimed that Bitconnect was one of the “fastest and most transparent projects with the highest profitability.
These are where you keep your entire wallet in a “plug n’ play” format. This means that you don’t need any sort of special software to access your funds, just simply put your smartphone or computer next to the hot wallet. Many of the mobile bitcoin wallets available to the public today are highly optimized for ease of use, and many of them allow you to back up your private keys on a computer.
3. PlusToken: $1.2 billion fake ICO
The latest fake ICO that made the news was the PlusToken ICO, which allegedly promised a 1.2-billion-dollar market cap. It was revealed that the team behind the project is unknown and there is no progress to prove this $1.2 billion valuation.
Sometimes, there will be situations where your hot wallet has been compromised, perhaps through malware or a hardware flaw. However, with a cold wallet, you’ll need to spend additional time and money installing software, running it, and backing up your private keys.
4. GainBitcoin: $7 million ICO scheme
With Gainbitcoin, the idea was to pay 2% of the future revenue of the project to investors. This seemed like a great deal to many people who invested in the project until they realized that they wouldn't even receive 2% of the collected revenue.
Some large-scale, well-known bitcoin miners will offer hardware wallets, including the new-age, slick Casascius bitcoin keys.
These are typically for sale to the public, which means that you can have your crypto hardware wallet. A device designed to hold your coins offline and require cold storage power, large amounts of expensive hardware to store them.
5. Mining Max: $17 million ICO scheme
Another scam that made the news is the Miner Max ICO, where the price of the coins rose from $3.20 to $8.86. At the time of the ICO, the total amount of coins was just under 17 million dollars, a lot less than the initial market cap of $43 million that was touted before the scam.