Cryptocurrency investors are claiming to have lost their life savings in a devastating crash which saw a £200 virtual coin become almost worthless overnight.
On Tuesday this week, the British firm behind a cryptocurrency called Bitconnect (BCC) announced that it was closing down its lending and exchange platform.
Despite promises to list BCC on other exchanges so trading could continue, the news sent the market into freefall.
Bitconnect has been dogged by claims that it’s a Ponzi Scheme – the name for a type of scam practised by Bernie Madoff in which con artists pays old investors a return generated by cash pledged by new investors.
Bitconnect said this criticism ‘made community members uneasy and created a lack of confidence in the platform’ in a statement announcing the closure of its lending and exchange platform, which allowed people to borrow and trade BCC.