Peters & Peters

Keith Oliver, Amy Harvey and Amalia Neenan assess the impact of regulation and civil remedies on crypto-criminality in Commercial Litigation Journal

2019 was a big year for cryptocurrencies and their ilk. Cryptocurrency security firm CipherTrace recently reported that crypto-criminals stole over $4.26bn in the first half of 2019 alone. This is unsurprising given some of the high-profile scandals that have come to light during the year. One of the highest profile scams of 2019 that has garnered worldwide media attention was the OneCoin Ponzi scheme. Touted as the ‘cryptocurrency’ to rival Bitcoin, and known as the ‘Bitcoin Killer’, OneCoin has thus far duped investors worldwide out of $4.4bn after it was unearthed that the OneCoin blockchain did not exist. Not only this, but there is no mechanism to exchange OneCoin for any other currency, prohibiting users from cashing out, leaving many stuck with worthless ‘currency’. Read more