Meta Description: From rug pulls to fake airdrops to influencer pumps — crypto has become the playground of scammers. Here’s why the web3 revolution also birthed a fraud industry.
📌 At a Glance:
Crypto promised us:
- Financial freedom
- Decentralized money
- Borderless innovation
What we got:
- NFT rug pulls
- Telegram pump groups
- Exchange hacks
- Influencers selling “Shitcoin of the Month”
Crypto didn’t remove middlemen.
It just created newer, more dangerous ones with Twitter handles like @CryptoGuru420.
🎯 1. No Regulation = Infinite Scam Potential
Traditional finance may be boring, but it’s heavily policed.
- SEBI audits brokers
- RBI controls banks
- NSE won’t let you list “YOLO Token”
But crypto? You can:
- Launch a coin in 10 minutes
- Fake a whitepaper with ChatGPT
- Hire influencers to shill
- And disappear with $2 million overnight
It’s not a loophole.
It’s a fraud factory with better UI.
🧠 2. Retail Greed + Tech Illiteracy = Rugpull Buffet
| What Retail Thinks | What’s Actually Happening |
|---|---|
| “10x returns in 2 months!” | Exit liquidity for whales |
| “It’s early, like Bitcoin in 2011” | It’s doomed, like Bitconnect in 2017 |
| “The founder is doxxed” | And so was Ketan Parekh |
| “This coin is backed by AI + DeFi + Web3” | Buzzword salad with no utility |
Crypto exploits human greed wrapped in techno gibberish.
🪤 3. The Most Popular Crypto Scams (2021–2025 Edition)
| Scam Type | Description |
|---|---|
| 🧻 Rug Pulls | Project raises millions → founders vanish |
| 🧢 Pump & Dump | Influencers shill low-cap coins → dump on followers |
| 🔒 Exchange Exit | Centralized exchange “gets hacked” → founders missing |
| 🎁 Fake Airdrops | “Connect wallet to claim free tokens” → goodbye funds |
| 📉 DAO Rug | “Community governance” → whales override, empty treasury |
Remember Squid Game Token?
Launched → spiked 23,000% → founders dumped → site deleted.
Classic.
👀 4. Influencers Made It Worse
Finfluencers didn’t help.
They monetized the madness.
- Promoted shady tokens for ₹5 lakh/post
- Did “giveaways” tied to rug-pulled projects
- Made “educational” videos that were just disguised affiliate pushes
They weren’t educating.
They were extracting.
If your favorite creator went from SIP reels to “Top 3 Crypto Coins Under ₹1”…
you know what happened.
📉 5. “Decentralized” = No One to Blame
When a bank fails, you call the RBI.
When a stock fraud happens, SEBI steps in.
When a crypto project disappears?
- No helpline
- No customer support
- No refunds
- No legal recourse
“Code is law” they said.
Until the dev deleted the GitHub repo and vanished.
🌍 6. Global Scam Capital + India’s FOMO = Toxic Combo
India saw:
- A sudden influx of exchanges (most unregistered)
- Celebrities launching coins (or at least tweeting about them)
- Telegram groups with 1 lakh+ members sharing “breakout signals”
No real knowledge.
Just hype, hearsay, and 10x dreams.
And then came:
- WazirX controversy
- Enforcement Directorate notices
- Indian crypto taxes (flat 30% 🙃)
🧠 EduInvesting Take:
Crypto is not evil.
But its open architecture + zero regulation + influencer hype = perfect scam breeding ground.
Until global regulations evolve,
Crypto is a wild jungle where only the tigers make money
— and the deer (retail) just run in cycles of hope and liquidation.
🏁 Final Verdict:
| Thought | Reality |
|---|---|
| “It’s the future!” | Might be — but scams are the present |
| “It’s decentralized” | But your money disappeared in 3 clicks |
| “This altcoin will 100x” | Only if you created it |
| “Crypto is freedom” | Also freedom for fraudsters to rug you daily |
🏷️ Tags:
crypto scams explained, rug pull crypto, pump and dump in crypto, influencer crypto scam, eduinvesting crypto roast, retail investor fraud
