PlusToken
A wallet-based Ponzi scheme that operated mainly in China and South Korea (2018–2019), promising high returns. Estimates of funds taken range from about $2 billion to over $4 billion; Chinese courts convicted ringleaders in 2020.
Also known as: PlusToken, Plus Token, PLUS
Summary
PlusToken presented itself as a high-yield cryptocurrency wallet, primarily attracting investors in China and South Korea beginning in 2018. Analyses describe it as a Ponzi scheme; estimates of the total taken vary, with Chainalysis tracing roughly $2 billion+ and other reporting and court figures ranging up to about $4 billion. [1][2][3]
Mechanism and scale
Users were promised returns for buying the platform's "Plus" token with Bitcoin or Ethereum. Chainalysis reported tracing large volumes of BTC and ETH from victims into PlusToken wallets and noted that subsequent cash-outs may have affected Bitcoin's price. [3] Reporting indicates the scheme attracted millions of participants. [2][3]
Outcome
Chinese authorities arrested six suspects in Vanuatu in June 2019 and later detained more than 100 people; in 2020 a court in Jiangsu sentenced ringleaders to terms ranging from two to eleven years. [1]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (3)
- PlusToken (overview) — Wikipedia
- Millions of people fell for crypto-Ponzi schemes in 2019 — MIT Technology Review
- PlusToken Scammers Stole $2+ Billion Worth of Cryptocurrency — Chainalysis
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.
