"The Missing Crypto Queen" by Jamie Bartlett

Above: "The Missing Crypto Queen. Jamie Bartlett. 278 Pages.

[Bartlett] tells a tale of plotting and palace intrigue, techno hype and herd madness. At the top of the pyramid, investors made millions. At the bottom thousands of small investors were wiped out.

I completed reading the above book today.

It was coincidental that I read this book simultaneously with the emergence of the FTX scandal.

Tipped off to the book by a friend, I was embarrassed not to have any knowledge of Ruja Ignatova and her Ponzi scheme. That knowledge gap has now been remedied.

Ruja Ignatova is the Oxford educated, Bulgarian co-founder of the now defunct OneCoin, and is known as the " CryptoQueen ." Ignatova operated OneCoin as a Ponzi scheme that took $4 billion from investors. She's now on the run from the FBI and is reported to have $500 million and 230,000 bitcoins.

The essence of a crypto currency platform is the presence of a blockchain where mining and trading of digital assets occurs. Ignatova promoted OneCoin as the future Bitcoin via a global multi-level marketing (MLM) structure. But the OneCoin currency was illusory and was not supported by a blockchain. OneCoin was Tupperware without the product.

OneCoin's pyramid selling model ensured that members earned commissions for making other members sign up in buying fraudulent crypto pages. OneCoin membership grew to an estimated membership of three million worldwide in the five years from 2014.

There is a lot of information in the book on how multi-level marketing (MLM) works. Many of the top players at OneCoin were real promoters showing off the good life of fast cars and designer clothes in jet set destinations.

By October of 2017, Ruja Ignatova had disappeared, and it slowly became clear that her revolutionary crypto currency was not all it was cracked up to be.

Author Bartlett, a tech journalist, entered the worlds of little-regulated cryptocurrencies and multilevel marketing schemes. He investigated criminal underworlds, corrupt governments and the super-rich. He tells a tale of plotting and palace intrigue, techno hype and herd madness. At the top of the pyramid, investors made millions. At the bottom thousands of small investors were wiped out.

There are several accounts in the book about OneCoin sales rallies held around the world. The loyalty and passion of OneCoin investors was stirred up in these heavily hyped rallies. Juha Ignatova would appear on stage toward the climax of the rally in a floor length dress with her signature black hair and red lipstick. The effect was electric. The crowds would go wild when she came on stage. Reading this book demands reflection on the whys and wherefores of the madness of crowds.

Ignatova's scam dwarfs Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Beware charismatic geniuses promising outsized returns. Ignatova is still at large. The author speculates she is living on a yacht at sea out of the reach of law enforcement. This is a fast read, and timely considering the emergence of the FTX crypto scandal, which has Ponzi scheme elements all its own.