High-Profile Cryptocurrency Collapses
Cryptocurrencies have been around for over a decade and due to their volatile nature, there have been some high-profile collapses. These are not necessarily scams but rather instances where the hype or speculation has led to an unsustainable situation. Here is a list of some of the most notorious examples:
1. Mt Gox: The now infamous Tokyo based exchange was once the largest Bitcoin trading platform in the world. It fell in February 2014 after it lost 850,000 Bitcoins valued at $450 million due to mismanagement and fraud from within its own ranks.
2. BitConnect: This highly controversial lending project promised astronomical returns on investments which many saw as too good to be true – it eventually collapsed with investors losing hundreds of millions of dollars in January 2018 after being accused by regulators as a Ponzi scheme operating illegally without registration or licensing requirements..
3. QuadrigaCX: Founded in 2013, this Canadian crypto exchange went offline suddenly when its founder died tragically taking access passwords to his grave leaving customers unable to access their funds resulting in losses estimated at $190 million USD worth of cryptocurrency assets stored on its server wallets that could not be accessed anymore..
4. PlusToken: A Chinese digital asset wallet service provider founded back in 2019 was shut down by authorities who deemed it an illegal operation following reports that those behind had taken off with more than $2 billion worth of user funds and various different cryptocurrencies including Ethereum (ETH), EOS (EOS) and Tron (TRX). Despite numerous arrests only a fraction has been recovered so far making this one of biggest cryptocurrency heists ever seen..
5These cases should serve as reminders why caution is always required when investing into any new financial instrument no matter how promising they may appear – cryptocurrencies can be incredibly profitable but also highly risky if proper research is not done beforehand!
