(This was originally posted on my Blogger, and has been updated since.)

My Steemit intro: Let's just get this out of the way, I never supported BitConnect, I simply tested their platform with a small amount of $130 on December 19th, and less than a month later the platform went down. (You can check out my test process on my Blogger and Youtube pages.) I am now moving on to posting here on Steemit as my main blog posting site, and DTube will coexist with my uploads from Youtube. I will be using Steemit and DTube not only for crypto talk, but also anything that I feel like posting, personally. I hope I can enjoy the Steemit community just as much as others have! :)

BitConnect Ends Their Lending Program, Current Exchange Will Follow Suit

This is so ironic...as I was preparing a 1-month follow up since the start of my BitConnect test process and journey, the whole lending platform ends with BitConnect citing the Cease and Desist Letters from Texas and North Carolina, a bad image from the press, and the recent DDoS attack to their website. I personally was expecting BitConnect to go down some time in the future, but not this soon. It is kind of funny when you think about it!

As of Tuesday January 16, 2018 BitConnect announced that their lending platform has been terminated and will no longer exist, and that all loans and lending wallet balances will be refunded in BCC at the 15-day average of $363.62 USD. BitConnect also announed on the same day that their BCC/BTC exchange will be closing down in five (5) days, making their website only usable as an online web wallet and news source for BCC and BTC articles. This has all led the BCC price to crash down over 90% to a current price of $25.10 at the time of writing, but bounces in between $10 and $40 constantly. With this crash, the aforementioned "refunded loans" in BCC valued at $363 means that all of the loans' have also crashed by over 90% in value. Let view my "refunded loans" as an example.

Before this BitConnect announcement, I had a total of $159.79 worth out in loans and accumulated in my lending wallet. That amount when converted to BCC at a price of $363.62 is equal to 0.439442 BCC. But at the time of writing this article, and a price of $25.10, my total refunded 0.439442 BCC is equal to $11.03. That's a drop of over 93% of what my loans and interests were once worth. You may be asking, why didn't I exchange my funds sooner into BTC? Two things, firstly the loans are locked up into their program for a certain amount of time, and secondly the BitConnect website has been down and no one has been able to log into their account.
Am I sad and regretting my decision of even testing the waters of BitConnect? Heck no lol, I put in money that I was willing to lose if something like this was to happen, which it did. I wasn't planning to make any major amounts of money at all, this was all part of a test process. As for other people who would make 2nd mortgages from their homes to invest more into BitConnect, or ones who put a majority of their life earnings into the platform, I have nothing to say except that was a mistake. To be clear, I have no one refered under my name on BitConnect, so don't put me in that category. I've only been on this platform for a month. All investments are a risk, and BitConnect was one of the largest risks of them all.

The Near Future For BitConnect
As of today, Wednesday January 17, 2018 BitConnect announced that they are in the works of making a new exchange with more cryptocurrency options to exchange with BCC. The same article states that the team behind BitConnect is not willing to let go of the community backing them, and that they are working on keeping the current exchange prices up and running. With these kinds of responses, we can see that BitConnect somewhat cares for the community they have built, at least on the outside. It still remains to be seen what they are able to recover in terms of their popularity and community numbers. If constant communication continues, then this may be a good thing for BitConnect. If not, then BitConnect will definitely be labeled a "ponzi" in my mind.
Speaking about communication, they have a dedicated Twitter page that have been posting updates of their platform since they have started. This form of communication has not dried out from them.

My recent video on this topic on Youtube and DTube.

My Future Coverage of BitConnect
Now what about me, will I still be covering BitConnect in the future? Sure thing, but still with the mindset of testing. The "refunded" BCC that I have received will stay in my BCC wallet on their site, as I have dedicated that money all to testing their platform. It would be worthless if I was to trade that BCC into another currency, especially since the massive crash. If BitConnect was to revive their lending platform in another way, or make some other use of their BitConnect Coin, I will be surely updating this blog and my Youtube Channel with the latest information.