What happened
Hong Kong bitcoin exchange MyCoin was shot down, taking with it as much as HK$3bn ($386.9m) in investor funds.
MyCoin promised its investors a return of 150% for a few months of locking up 90 Bitcoin at a price of HK$400,000 at the time.
30 people were claiming to be victims of the company's actions petitioned a local member of the Legislative Council, Leung Yiu-Chung.
Some reports stated the company never operated as a genuine bitcoin business at all. Testimonies from customers describe an operation more like a Ponzi scheme that used the veneer of bitcoin trading as its lure.
Customers were never presented with receipts and were led to deposit their newly-acquired coins at a separate site to earn interest.
MyCoin had promised that it would soon be listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, and according to photos posted online, also operated a bitcoin ATM:
http://news.yibite.com/application/2015/0208/27667.shtml
Case & protocol details
Evidence & learning
Sources and on-chain records
- report Report coindesk.com
- analysis Web Archive web.archive.org
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