Bitconnect has proven to officially be a scam. Give or take a couple of days, but the bitconnect platform is no longer working on 01/16/2018. If you read my earlier post, I called this scam and when it would go belly-up almost to the date. If something is too good to be true, it usually is. The writing was on the wall, no one can promise those types of gains and deliver day in and day out.
What are going to be the ramifications of this bitconnect scam? I think very little will be done. One thing is for sure, people will be calling for more regulation in the crypto space, the same space that has to this point defied regulation. That is actually one of the proponents of bitcoin itself, the fact that it is supposedly self-regulating. While bitcoin might self-regulate, the crypto space certainly does not. Does this call for regulation by some entity (3rd party or governmental) or is it simply a learning opportunity where the lesson is that greed does not pay off. Let the debates begin.
One thing is true, you have to do your homework. If you don't, you can get burned just like in any industry. Many people called out bitconnect for being a possible scam. A simple internet search revealed that bitconnect was most undoubtedly a scam. Should the late investors be given their money back? In my opinion, no. They did not do their homework, and if they did, they knew the risks and took the gamble on anyways. Again, I think people should be allowed to take their own risks, but you do feel bad that a lot of people lost a lot of money on this platform. People need to learn how to protect themselves. At this point in crypto, everything should be taken with skepticism. Crazy times are here, and crazy times are ahead. The crypto space offers so many advantages, but it would be foolish to act as if there aren't huge risks out there.
I just looked it up, and it looks like bitconnect had about a 1 billion dollar market cap. Wow, 1 billion just going poof. I mean not a billion dollars was lost on net, but it sure traded a couple of hands. If you were one of those hands that lost, you must be very angry right now. Ponzi schemes are never fun. This one was well devised and worked for much longer than a lot of people believed. For over a year this ponzi scheme worked pretty much flawlessly. Bitconnect appears to have continued to operate their website and perhaps the now next to zero bcc currency. It has released an explanation of what happened, but you will have to read that and decide if you think their is any validity to their explanation. For me, it doesn't sound to convincing and continues to be shady.
Bitconnect has released a new website bitconnectx. But I don't think there is any way that that is going to work now. Imagine if Bernie Madoff came out with a new platform after his ponzi failed. No one in their right mind would sign up for that thing. Their credibility has got to be next to nothing.