Since the past months, enforcement agencies in India have been closely investigating BitConnect, a cryptocurrency fraud that troubled over 3 thousand investors with a total loss exceeding $2 billion.
According to the information, Ahmedabad Enforcement Directorates has made an investment in BitConnect, a Ponzi scheme that collapsed in 2018, exceeding a loss of $2 billion.
On February 15, 2025, ED Ahmedabad said that it had launched an investigation under the provision of Anti Money Laundering (AML), yet the investigation came after a number of complaints were filed by the CID of Surat in 2018.
The filed complaint also notes that the alleged scammers have victimized people from several other nations, including India.
Authorities seized physical cash with a car
In the ongoing investigation, the concerned agencies seized a significant amount of cash and an SUV car with several other pieces of digital evidence while conducting raids in different places in Gujarat.
And during the investigation, the agencies identified Satish Kumbhani as the mastermind of a million-dollar crypto ponzi scheme that looted 4000 or more investors.
Some experts argue, citing the transactions, that there are chances of using crypto mixers for erasing the sources and designation of the cryptocurrencies; an assigned team of tech professionals has also tracked the owner of these wallets involved.
The Ponzi scheme, which collapsed 2 years after its release after its launch, also has roots in 90 other nations, including India. Agencies are constantly working on the case, and the conclusion of the case is awaited.
The promoters receive a specific corresponding commission in exchange for bringing in investors. The investors were persuaded to contribute money to the lending platform, which BitConnect represented, in the form of cash or other digital assets.
Crypto assets gained from victims were never used for trading but rather used for their personal gains and luxury. Yet the collected funds from the victim were transferred to a few unknown locations from different wallets.
A U.S. District Court in 2018 granted a temporary restraining order freezing BitConnect’s assets and “to disclose cryptocurrency wallet and trading account addresses, as well as the identities of anyone to whom BitConnect has sent digital currencies within the last 90 days”.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States has filed a case against Glenn Arcaro, the national promoter of BitConnect in the United States, with Satish and the company, and the Department of Justice has also filed a case against the national promoter.
Crypto market price updates
Until publishing, the crypto market cap was $3.18 trillion, the trading volume was $69.35 billion with a surge of 12 percent, and the crypto market saw an inflow of $80,144,000, the fear and greed index was at 38, determining fear in the market sentiment.
According to CoinMarketCap, the intraday gainer’s list has been ruled by PanCakeSwap, Sonic, Aave, Ronin, Bitget Token, and The Graph; at the same time, the losers are Jupiter, Raydium, Virtual Protocol, Official Trump, Litecoin and Solana.
Bitcoin exchanged hands at $96,124 with an intraday decline of 1.04 percent, the market cap was $1.9 trillion, declining 1.94 percent, and the volume was $20.71 billion with a surge of 31 percent.
