Untangling bitcoin scams: investor deception, legal gray areas, and hundreds of cases.

• In 2015, several cryptocurrency firms emerged nationwide, promising investors 30% monthly returns.

• The returns were delayed and stopped after the owner stopped answering calls, leading to a financial crisis.

• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth ₹4.56 crore since taking over the investigation in the BTC Fund case.

• Over the past decade, investors have been swindled of tens of thousands of crores of rupees.

• The ED has taken up 122 cases of cryptocurrency fraud since 2017-18.

• Amit Bharadwaj, an engineer from Maharashtra, founded a similar platform, Gain Bitcoin, in 2015, which allegedly defrauded investors of 80,000 Bitcoins.

• The ED launched a money laundering investigation against Bhardwaj, his family members, and others, arresting several persons and attached properties worth over ₹180 crore.

• The ED has taken up probes in similar cases from Gujarat and Haryana.

• The mode of operation involves Bitcoin mining or farming, where specialized computers are used to execute complex mathematical problems.

• India ranked fifth globally in terms of the number of cryptocurrency-related complaints and sixth in terms of the overall estimated losses.

• 70-80% of the lost investments could be recovered if the police are informed within five to six hours of the crash of a suspicious trading platform.

• The Reserve Bank of India had banned the trade in virtual currencies in April 2018, but the Supreme Court lifted the ban in 2020.