The Stellenbosch-headquartered bitcoin trading scheme imploded in late December after its offices were raided by authorities and it stopped paying out funds to tens of thousands of members.
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Helped itself to R8.6bn worth of bitcoin belonging to its ‘investors’. 00:01
Chainalysis was able to analyse MTIâs cryptocurrency transaction history to learn more about the scam. Image: Dado Ruvic, Reuters
Itâs official: Mirror Trading International (MTI) was the worldâs biggest crypto scam of 2020, having roped in $588 million (R8.6 billion) worth of bitcoin across 470 000 transactions, according to the recently released 2021 Crypto Crime Report by Chainalysis.
The number of victims likely runs into hundreds of thousands, says the blockchain analysis company.
However, 2020 wasnât quite as bad as 2019 for crypto scams: in 2019, Ponzi schemes took in nearly $7 billion worth of cryptocurrency, against just under $2.7 billion in 2020.
Mirror Trading International Named Biggest Crypto Scam of the Year After Raking in $589 Million
Blockchain analysis firm, Chainalysis’ latest crime report has named Mirror Trading International (MTI) as the biggest cryptocurrency scam of 2020. Chainalysis arrived at this conclusion after an investigation found that MTI had taken in $589 million from more than 471,000 deposits. According to the report, MTI’s haul is significantly higher than that of Forsage and J-enco, the next biggest scams. Both scams raked in less than $350 million each.
More South African Victims
Meanwhile, in the report’s brief focus on MTI, Chainalysis reveals that more than half of MTI’s web traffic had originated from South Africa. On the other hand, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the U.S together account for nearly a quarter of the remaining web traffic. Using this web traffic data, the blockchain analysis firm concludes that “most MTI victims hail from these countries