Anatomy of a SCAM -- BTC2

Alright, so I feel the urge to drop in and tell the STEEM community, in case you were considering...

DO NOT BUY BTC2!

I know it maybe tempting to see a fresh new top 100 coin on CMC. It's zooming up the charts! It's red hot! But wait... What the heck is it? It got up to a $457 million market cap on June 7, 2019... It must be THE REAL BITCOIN!

Wait a minute! I remember how this one goes...

Yeah, that's what they want you to believe. Whoever "they" is wants you to FOMO into this scamcoin. Their website is literally 2 pages and somehow it got to a half-billion dollar valuation? I don't get it.

From their Github, they say "Bitcoin 2 is an experimental digital currency that enables nearly instant, private payments to anyone, anywhere in the world." But on their website, it is emphasized that it is a "scalable Bitcoin fork supporting truly anonymous and instantly verified transactions."

At least we know where the huge market cap came from! Most of that supply came from a chain fork of BTC on approximately February 5, 2018 at block 507850. I seriously doubt most of those coins have been claimed. And yet still Coinmarketcap is reporting a circulating supply of 17,288,923 BTC2. WHY????

According to its BitcoinTalk thread, it was only listed on CMC on May 28. It started pumping less than 10 days later. That's not suspicious at all!

But let's review some other suspicious elements so that this great STEEM community can be on the lookout the inevitable next time this type of activity happens in crypto:

• First, anything that 12X's in a week... That's not natural. Not even the greatest startups in the history of the world - think Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Quantfury - experience that kind of growth. That's because it's impossible. Unless you are really, really small, like you just grew 10 users to 120 users... in that case, you could grow 1200% in a week. No problem! 🤗

• Second, just take a look at this chart from the past day:

That little Bart Simpson's head-shaped pattern that emerged in the middle of the night? Yeah, that's not natural. In fact, it virtually screams market manipulation. It's even a widely recognized meme in the wider crypto community. 😩

-Third, let's look at the exchange. Crex24 is right now the 130th ranked exchange according to the adjusted volume on CMC. Not exactly a stalwart exchange, especially knowing the industry propensity to fake volume. But still, we need to look at the liquidity on the big dogs - BTC and ETH - and that's where things get weird:

What the heck are these coins? And more importantly, why do they have more volume on this exchange than bitcoin and ethereum? This BTC2 pump seems to be bringing in more than 1/6 of the total volume for the exchange, while BTC and ETH combined are less than 1/10. Not a good sign. 🤔

• Fourth, high yield equals high risk. In nearly every investment opportunity, you really need to be suspect of a) any investment that touts a "high" annual ROI prominently in its investment literature (Those people are literally high! No investment can be guaranteed whatsoever) and b) any investment that is highlighting such outlandish returns as this:

It's just too much. In the traditional asset world, 10%-plus is considered a high-risk "junk" bond. I guess the threshold could be moved up a little bit higher in the bass ackwards crypto world, but up to 56%? Up to you, really, but I'm gonna stay firmly within the realm of reality, with at least one foot on the ground... like a good finance prof. 🤓

There's probably a thousand other red flags, but that's enough to stop right there and never consider investing in this thing again! So let's review, when trying to spot crypto scams, you gotta look for and avoid like the plague:

1. Face-melting vertical moves. Anything more than a double is highly suspect.
2. BART patterns. Watch the Simpsons on Disney+, don't buy their boy's hair pattern charts!
3. Illiquid scam exchanges. Don't let the siren song of profits allow you to expose yourself to undue risk.
4. High yield = high risk. Always and forever. Amen.

I hope you enjoyed this little detour into the dirty side of crypto. So be safe out there, guys, and

As always, PEACE! ✌🏼