What Bitcoiners Can Learn from the OneCoin Scam with Jamie Bartlett - WBD168
The Peter McCormack Show
Peter McCormack
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 15 November 2019
⏱️ 144 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Location: London Date: Monday, 11th Nov Project: The Missing Cryptoqueen Role: Host
OneCoin, a project founded by Ruja Ignatova, promised a financial revolution. By the time Ignatova disappeared, the scam was alleged to have received over $5bn in investment (though some estimates may put it at over $15bn).
While OneCoin claimed to be running a private blockchain, in reality, it was a Ponzi scheme where buyers purchased 'packages' and received 'educational material'. During the process, they earned OneCoin tokens, and there were incentive schemes to onboard new users.
Once people had received their OneCoins, the only place they could trade them was with another OneCoin user on the scheme's private 'exchange'. While the scam began to unravel with the disappearance of Ruja and the arrest of her brother, many struggled to accept it was a scam and money continued to pour in.
The word scam is thrown around loosely in crypto, often from cult-like followers who disagree with an ideology that another coin possesses or sometimes due to a lack of knowledge. While some projects may be misguided or have questionable use-cases, not all are scams like OneCoin Bitconnect and PlusToken.
Experienced investors see these projects and immediately identify the warning signs; sadly, this is not necessarily the case for newcomers. The language used in Bitcoin and crypto can be confusing, and when regular people hear or read about a project that is 'The New Bitcoin' with promises the project is like buying Bitcoin at $1, $10 or $100, these scams can quickly suck in naive investors.
So, should Bitcoiners be doing more to spread awareness of these scams as they arise and what can Bitcoiners learn about guiding new investors from scams such as this?
In this interview, I talk to Jamie Bartlett, host of the BBC's podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen, an investigation into OneCoin and the disappearance of its founder Ruja Ignatova. We discuss scams, Ponzi's, pyramids, cults and multi-level marketing.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the What Bitcoin did podcast. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello there from New York. |
| 0:08.0 | How are you all? |
| 0:09.0 | Welcome to the What Bitcoin did podcast, which is brought to you by The Mighty Cracken. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm your host Peter McCormack, and today I've got an interview with the host of the BBC's |
| 0:16.4 | Missing Crypto Queen podcast at Jamie Bartlett discussing the One Coin scam. |
| 0:20.2 | But before that I do have a message from my show sponsors. So firstly, we have the mighty |
| 0:25.2 | Krakhan, the best place to buy and sell Bitcoin, and they've recently made this huge announcement. |
| 0:31.2 | Krakan has launched their first mobile app. Have you checked it out yet? Have you downloaded |
| 0:34.8 | Krakan Pro and how to play? Krakan Pro delivers all the security features you love about the |
| 0:39.6 | Krakan Exchange in a beautiful mobile first design for advanced crypto trading on the go. |
| 0:44.8 | So it doesn't matter where you are, whether you are in Starbucks grabbing a coffee or |
| 0:49.0 | you're just sat at home watching Liverpool on the TV, you can trade Bitcoin on the go. |
| 0:54.7 | The app has got so much packed in, you got real-time price updates, multiple charting and |
| 0:59.5 | order book display options, you've got advanced trading features, you can view a complete history of your |
| 1:05.0 | orders, trades, positions, deposits and withdrawals, and finally the app comes with a deep and |
| 1:10.1 | liquid set of over 100 cryptocurrency markets, fees as lower 0% and |
| 1:14.5 | 24-7 365 global customer support. |
| 1:17.6 | Cracken have smashed it with this app so make sure you download it, make sure you go |
| 1:21.6 | and check it out. it's available for the |
| 1:23.4 | iPhone and Android just search for Crac and Pro which is K-R-A K-E-N-P-O. Next up is Block Fy the |
| 1:31.0 | amazing Block-Fi the amazing BlockFi. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peter McCormack, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Peter McCormack and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.