Carlos Matos, the shameless scammer behind the infamous BitConnect Ponzi scheme, has become one of the internet's latest and most hilarious "memes." That's because just months prior to the cryptocurrency exchange's demise, Matos was seen on stage at a New York event screaming and wailing about how great BitConnect supposedly was, which has since earned him a number of hilarious YouTube videos mocking him for this pathetic stunt.
In this video clip, Matos is seen in a cringe-worthy display acting as a used car salesman for "Biiitcooonnnnnnneeeeeecct." Watch as he hilariously tries to rally the crowd in favor of the scam company, which was recently shuttered after federal regulators determined that BitConnect was running an illegal securities exchange for the purpose of ripping off users.
Though BitConnect is still in operation as a basic exchange, its proprietary BitConnect cryptocurrency is basically dead, having dropped from $321 per "coin" to just over $35 per "coin," in just one day. This represents a more than 86 percent plunge in perceived value.
BitConnect represents one of the latest cryptocurrency scams to bilk people out of millions of dollars, and Matos is a poster child for what the worst of this corrupt industry represents. His foolish display has gotten so much media attention in recent days that many have created video "memes" highlighting the stupidity of it all. Here's another depicting Matos's stage hysterics as if they were coming from a haunted mine.
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BitConnect blames Ponzi scheme collapse on "bad press" and "DDoS attacks"
On BitConnect's website, the company says that its lending and exchange platform was shut down for "many reasons," one of which includes "continuous bad press." BitConnect alleges that it was not doing anything wrong or illegal, but that things started to fail as a result of "community members" feeling "uneasy" about it all, which created "a lack of confidence in the platform."
"Outside forces have performed DDos attacks on platform several times and have made it clear that these will continue," the company adds. "These interruptions in service have made the platform unstable and have created more panic inside the community."
But the truth of the matter is that BitConnect had been running a full-blown Ponzi scheme that promised investors upwards of 40 percent returns in just one month. In fact, many in the cryptocurrency community who buy and sell the digital currencies with integrity are in agreement that BitConnect was a bad apple trying to scam people.
BitConnect had basically been operating as an anonymously-run exchange where users were allowed to "loan" their legitimate cryptocurrencies to the company in exchange for the promise of massive returns. Users who agreed to loan $10,000 worth of cryptocurrency for 180 days, for instance, were promised at least 40 percent returns, as well as .20 percent daily bonuses.
There was also a pyramid aspect to the program that promised even more returns for multi-level referrals, meaning users were encouraged to invite more people onto the platform in exchange for bonuses. Many people jumped onboard in the hopes of receiving massive gains, only to suffer major losses when the system was exposed as a fraud.
"The requirement of having BCC (not Bitcoin cash, but rather BitConnect's proprietary cryptocurrency) to participate in the lending program led to a natural spike in demand (and price) of BCC," explained Tech Crunch (as quoted by IbankCoin.com). "In less than a year the currency went from being worth less than a dollar (with a market cap in the millions) to a all-time high of ~$430.00 with a market cap above $2.6B."
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