OneCoin
A multi-level-marketing scheme based in Bulgaria that sold a cryptocurrency with no underlying blockchain or value. Per the U.S. DOJ, victims invested more than $4 billion. Co-founder Ruja Ignatova ('Cryptoqueen') remains a fugitive.
Also known as: OneCoin, Ruja Ignatova, Cryptoqueen, Karl Sebastian Greenwood
Summary
OneCoin was a multi-level-marketing (MLM) operation founded in 2014 and based in Sofia, Bulgaria, that marketed and sold a cryptocurrency of the same name. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the scheme took in more than $4 billion from at least 3.5 million victims, and prosecutors stated that OneCoin "had no actual value". [1][3]
How it operated
Prosecutors said OneCoin was structured as a global MLM network that paid commissions for recruiting new buyers, and that its price was set by the operators rather than any market. [1][2] U.S. officials described it as "one of the largest fraud schemes ever perpetrated". [1]
People and outcome
Co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2023 to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million. [1][3] Co-founder Ruja Ignatova, known as the "Cryptoqueen", disappeared in 2017, was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in 2022, and remains at large. [1][3]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (3)
See also
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — Justin Sun token freezeProjectsWLFI, a DeFi project linked to Donald Trump and his family, blacklisted/froze the wallet of major investor Justin Sun in Sept 2025 — ~540–595M unlocked WLFI tokens (~$107M) plus ~2.4B locked. Sun sued, alleging an undisclosed admin 'blacklist backdoor'; WLFI denied it and threatened a countersuit. The dispute is ongoing.
Gala Games exploitTokensOn May 20, 2024 an attacker abused a privileged minter account on the GALA token contract to mint 5 billion GALA (≈$200M+ nominal) and dumped ~600M of them for ~$22M of ETH before Gala froze the address. Gala Games called it an internal access-control failure; the attacker later returned the ~$22M.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.
