BitcoLoan Review: Lending Ponzi with token exit-scam
BitcoLoan provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.
BitcoLoan’s website domain (“bitcoloan.com”) was first registered on July 4th, 2020. The private domain registration was last updated on October 28th, 2020.
Alexa currently ranks the top two sources of traffic to BitcoLoan’s website as India (20%) and the US (17%).
BitcoLoan’s official Twitter account places the company in Sydney, Australia.
None of these countries are likely candidates for where BitcoLoan is being operated from.
The first video uploaded to BitcoLoan’s official YouTube channel was on January 28th, 2021.
It’s a testimonial video from “Wendy”, who has a distinctly European accent.
Wendy is sitting in a left-hand drive car, so that rules out Australia and India.
Have a listen to “Craig”, “Melanie” and an official BitcoLoan tutorial video.
Update 22nd July 2021 – I had linked to several BitcoLoan vidoes hosted on their official YouTube channel above.
Sometime in the past 24 hours these videos have been marked private, so I’ve had to remove the links.
The company’s website is still up but I’m noting BitcoLoan’s official Facebook page has also been wiped. /end update
In case it wasn’t obvious, BitcoLoan is most likely being operated from Russia or the Ukraine.
As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.
BitcoLoan’s Products
BitcoLoan has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market BitcoLoan affiliate membership itself.
BitcoLoan’s Compensation Plan
BitcoLoan affiliates invest $10 or more on the promise of an advertised daily return.
Specifics aren’t provided on BitcoLoan’s website, however the company provides the following example in one of its marketing videos:
- receive a 0.6% daily ROI for 30 days, capped at 118%
- receive 0.75% daily ROI for 60 days, capped at 145%
- receive a 0.9% daily ROI for 90 days, capped at 181%
BitcoLoan affiliates are able to boost their daily ROI percentage by recruiting BitcoLoan affiliates (max 3%).
BitcoLoan pays referral commissions on invested funds down three levels of recruitment (unilevel):
- 8% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- 4% on level 2
- 2% on level 3
Joining BitcoLoan
BitcoLoan affiliate membership is free.
Full participation in the attached income opportunity however requires a minimum $10 investment.
BitcoLoan solicits investment in bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, dash, dogecoin, zcash, bitcoin cash and monero.
Conclusion
Under the guise of running a lending platform, BitcoLoan solicits investment on the promise of a daily return.
The flow of money is typical of a Ponzi scheme, with new investment used to pay out existing affiliate withdrawals.
Despite having only a few thousand installs of their app, BitcoLoan amusingly claims to have 18 million affiliate investors.
As with all MLM Ponzi schemes, once affiliate recruitment slows down so too will new investment.
This will starve BitcoLoan of ROI revenue, eventually prompting a collapse.
BitcoLoan’s exit-scam of choice is the ERC-20 shit token route.
On March 10th BitcoLoan uploaded a video to their official YouTube channel titled, “BitcoLoan – How to use BitcoLoan Token”.
BitcoLoan Token is an ERC-20 token that can be set up in a few minutes. As of yet BitcoLoan hasn’t convinced a public exchange to list their token.
In the meantime the plan is to let affiliates invest directly into BitcoLoan Token. No internal pricing is made public.
Eventually BitcoLoan will stop paying out in anything but BitcoLoan, allowing the company’s anonymous admins to hoard invested cryptocurrency.
When the time comes, they’ll list BitcoLoan on a dodgy exchange and do a runner.
87% of assets are stored in cold wallets and are inaccessible to anyone but the owners.
Given the potential for an initial listing pump, this might mean BitcoLoan’s owners won’t disappear straight away.
Math is math though and outside of their own shit token, which is created out of thin air, BitcoLoan can only pay out what is invested.
The math behind MLM Ponzi schemes guarantees that when they inevitably collapse, the majority of participants lose money.
Update 28th July 2021 – BitcoLoan withdrawals have been disabled for most of July. This suggests the Ponzi scheme has collapsed.
Looks like the same group behind Staked Wallet an Westland Storage.
I dunno, I made 400$ off them from a referral of mine, and was able to immediately withdraw it to coinbase no problems what so ever.
Also, they are listed in san fran, cali on my open seo….. and since I made a deposit, I have received daily pay every day and it has been withdrawable to my coinbase…. without issue. and they have great customer service.
I see them actively making changes and updates to the website…. it all seems fairly legit to me to be honest… just thought i’d throw my 2 cents in.
What’s there to know? BitcoLoan is a Ponzi scheme regardless of whether you stole $400 through it.
I think you mean hosted and, not withstanding hosting has no bearing on a fraudulent business model, BitCoLoan uses CloudFlare.
Until new investment runs dry and the majority of investors take a loss.
I also made a good profit with Bitcoloan since February. Everything is very smooth so far. Support is good.
My only concern was that CEO Mark Lester is not a public person, but it is pritty obvious in blockchain technology businesses nowdays.
All Ponzi schemes are “smooth”, until they aren’t.
I’m assuming you meant “common”. Blockchain or no, fake executives isn’t common in legitimate companies.
Yeah yeah clone supporter, pull another finger there.
It is not registered with SEC because they don’t claim to be a security. I can’t say it’s a Ponzi scheme or not, but as long as bitcoin and ethereum and alt-coins are in the public eye, there will be people willing to try to make large gains and will be willing to borrow.
As long as bitcoin and ethereum are accepted, bitcoloan and other crypto-platforms will be successful. If people in bitcoin and ethereum are losing interest or pull money out, then bitcoloan will fail.
(Ozedit: derail removed)
I get it, crypto-lending is new, so who knows about bitcoloan. But I’m invested. And word to the wise who are cautious.
There are 30 day 18% loans as of 4/21–if you are cautious, just do one 30 day loan, withdraw your principal and just play with your profit. It’s house money.
It’s not murder because the murderer didn’t claim to commit murder.
Herp derp, MLM + passive investment opp = securities offering.
Also calling Ponzi scamming “crypto lending” doesn’t make it “new”. Ponzi scamming has been around for over a century.
Like any Ponzi scheme, no new investment = kaboom. Stop making excuses for scammers.
I cannot withdrawl funds.
Not another one! Anyone else able to confirm?
You can find me on Facebook. I just wanted to say I’m a real person, and I have no prior connection or commitments to Bitcoloan or the owners. I invested 1,500usd over 3 months ago, have made around 700usd in profit and was able to withdrawl all 700usd of it no problem just 30 minutes ago as a experiment. I left the remainder in the account to allow the continuance of growth. The company seems to be solvent, IMO. The address they sent funds from (instantly I might add) has a balance of 87,000usd ETH equivalent, and 102,000usd USDT ERC20.
Ponzi schemes pay out until they don’t. bUt I gOt PaId isn’t due-diligence.
Also, I wanted to add that the owners could also take the money they got from investors, and take in turn thereselves and invest into interest bearing accounts to make profit off idle funds.
So, it is possible that this company could succeed if managed properly.
I definitely understand where you are coming from though. It’s very sketchy at this moment. I guess let’s see where it goes. I just wanted to confirm I COULD withdrawl funds, as the prior commentor stated he couldn’t and you asked for confirmation.
If you want to make representations about what BitcoLoan is or isn’t doing with invested funds, provide audited financial reports.
Also nobody is offering 1% a day on legitimate interest bearing accounts.
Unverified hypotheticals = waste of time. What is this, your first Ponzi rodeo?
How could I possibly provide that? Only the owners know the current state of their business financials, because they arent SEC registered they don’t have to provide that.
(Lolz) I’m not saying the possibility of a ponzi isn’t there, what I am saying is yes actually there is HUGE interest to be made with the proper collateral.
You can check this yourself on CAKES platform, which is a successful coin. So, it’s not beyond belief that a good manager could take these funds and invest into high interest farming pools.
The best financial snapshot we can get (at this point) is by looking at their payout wallets…which is what I’m interested to see.
Anyone else have verified payout wallets from Bitcoloan with the current balance(s)??
Legitimate MLM passive investment companies are required to provide periodic audited financial reports to financial regulators and the public.
BitcoLoan isn’t registered and hasn’t made this documentation because it’s a Ponzi scheme.
you’re fine with stealing money and don’t care. Got it.
Some shitcoin investment scheme isn’t a legitimate interest bearing account. It’s monopoly money that doesn’t exist.
This is not a substitute for legally required audited financial reports.
This is obviously your first Ponzi rodeo. You do realize that just because they show you “numbers” in their payout wallet doesn’t mean they are real.
They can be faked and every Ponzi does fake them. It’s how they keep people putting money in thinking their account is growing and they are making money.
All you are doing is stealing money from new investors to pay you, which all Ponzi’s also do.
Paying or not paying is not what makes a Ponzi a Ponzi.
As Oz has said repeatedly their business model determines whether they are a Ponzi or not. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors.
The best financial snapshot is provided by the fact they commit criminal offences by offering a passive investment scheme without the required regulatory licence.
If they were generating returns of any kind they would register their investment scheme with securities regulators instead of breaking the law.
The only reason investment schemes break the law is because they have no source of returns other than investors’ money, i.e. they’re Ponzi schemes.
That is all the financial snapshot we need.
You say I’m stealing money, but I actually “invested” 1500usd ish at the start and have only withdrawn ~700usd. So I haven’t stole anything, in fact if it was to collapse today I lose 800usd.
Anyways, I’d love to see them convert (if they are a ponzi as you say) to a lucrative business model with the “startup funds” they received from initial investors.
Your $1500 was stolen the second you invested. Now you’re stealing other people’s money.
Welcome to Ponzi 101.
Scammers launch Ponzi schemes to steal money. They’re not interested in anything else.
Steal – take (another person’s property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.
They didn’t technically steal my money. I gave them permission by depositing it. Anyways okay man I know there’s no changing your mind. It’s made up. Let’s just see what happens.
It’s kinda my first, but not technically. LTCMINER got me for 1,000usd.
Scamming = taking without a legal right.
There is no legal right to take money off people by feeding them a pack of lies.
Try harder Rumpole of the Bailey.
I ain’t had no problem withem. The pissed off k ow it all with all his trees of factual puke all over the page just discribed over half the alt coins out their.
Banging his chest with his printed pie chart of how right he is. Yet. There still here . doin the damn thing . aint never had . he never mentioned one time how anyone got burned. Cry baby sissy . grow a pair or up. Sad a grown man cant accept the fact hes too scared take the chance.
10 bucks all that Crying. Damn ! Go home. Work on your next crusade waaaaaay over there. Sissy.
^^ typical bUt I’M gEtTiNg PaId! MLM crypto dork.
Ponzi schemes scam until money from suckers such as yourself runs out. You’re OK with fraud? Cool. Stop being an insecure twat and own your thievery.
Lol I love it! It’s all about reputation. They really are basing the entire “it’s a scam” off the fact that the registered a sketchy CEO at startup, and that it seems to copy a page out of the “HYIP” book.
Well, maybe he’ll call it that for 10 years and change his mind. I’ve been watching the books daily.. and the balance sheet seems to show stability.
Also, the interest rates aren’t HONESTLY that high. They mention “up to 1.2%” but really I’m only seeing rates of like .5%.
Not half,you mean 99.9% are scams
Whew somebody should invest in a stress-ball and an education
Uh,no. Those are just obvious extras
No need,few scams survive even 5 years,especially not ones this badly marketed
You have no fucking idea how money works do you? Get an education
Doubling your money in less than a year effectively guaranteed with no risk is literally the most obvious scam in existence
The GREATEST investors in history like Buffet could do 60% a year over a few years with major effort and major risk
You don’t get it do you? How can it be ponzi? You make money when someone borrowed. The interest charged will pay you and the bitcoloan itself.
To guarantee that the borrower will pay, a collateral is needed which is higher than the borrowed amount. So if it doesn’t pay, its collateral will fix it! How can you loose?
You invest in BitcoLoan, someone steals your money. You steal money from people who invest after you.
What’s there not to get?
If you want to make claims about external revenue provide audited financial reports.
MLM + securities fraud = Ponzi scheme.
Same as any other Ponzi scheme, when new investment runs dry.
You seem to be someone with inside information,could you please provide the audited financials and securities registration since you seem to disagree with factual evidence of laws being broken.
I’ll put a million down under you if you can actually prove it’s not a scam – how’s that investment sound?
All the dodgy Russian BitcoLoan marketing videos cited in this review have been nuked. BitcoLoan has also wiped its Facebook profile.
Too early to call exit-scam?
Main Youtoob is still full of testimonials and other crap, I wouldn’t put money on it yet,also not enough complaints on Trustpilot which usually blows up after exits.
Yeah I saw that. Mountains of shill videos to scroll past to confirm the early Russian videos are gone.
IDC what any of y’all have to say, I invested a and made $40,000 from it, and am still using they’re platform.
Not only did I make $40,000 from it, but I was able to withdrawal $10,000 of that before I reinvested $30,000 to a 700% ROI on a 320 day loan. So that will be $210,000 in about 5 months.
Y’all dont understand how all this works especially since we are crowdfunding these business loans.
People WILL pay extra to get something they want now, we’re human, it’s in our nature to satisfy our urge for instant gratification, and the “need” of always wanting more.
Just do what you want, but while you all miss out on this opportunity, I’m riding it all the way, and then some!!!
You stealing money isn’t a substitute for registering with financial regulators and audited financial reports.
Wait, what is the net amount of outside money you’ve invested?
1. You sign up, invest, get your money stolen and then steal other people’s money. That’s all there is to BitcoLoan.
2. If you want to make claims about external revenue, provide audited financial reports.
You’re a garbage human being with bankrupt morals. Got it.
No you did not make $40,000. They let you take $40,000 out, of which you kept $10,000 of stolen money, and they got you to redeposit the $30,000 of the stolen money on the promise of a bigger return.
Kiss your make believe $210,000 bye along with your $30K.
You really are gullible aren’t you. I hate to break it to you, but they are far more smarter than you, and they know a good sucker when they see it.
A fool and his money are soon parted. Congratulations fool. You fell for it.
Welp. I definitely fell for this ponzi scheme. Learning curve I guess.
I can confirm I can’t withdraw funds. I put in $35 bucks in the shortest loan possible – 30 days. Right now I’m 14 days in, and it pays “interest” on the website, so I have like $3 accumulated sitting there, that I am trying to withdraw.
What they are saying right now is that they are “migrating from Cefi to Defi” and that funds will be available by July 28th. Somehow I doubt it.
Thanks for sharing. There’s only one reason a Ponzi stops paying out.
Guess we can look forward to more “but I withdrew $x! (but lost $x+$1000s)” shills over the next few days.
From what I’m reading BitcoLoan stopped paying out on July 17th. Might be selective payments going through to keep the shills posting.
Complaints are still light at this stage, likely due to dumbasses rolling over monopoly money returns instead of actually withdrawing.
Will wait another 24-48 hours to confirm.
Calling it; BitcoLoan has collapsed.
Sorry for your loss.
I can confirm that I am unable to withdraw funds from Bitcoloan. I have been trying for the past 10 days but still keep getting the same BS from the help desk.
They say the tech dept is is the process of moving from Cefi to Defi.
Is there any way we can get this out to all those investors who have money tied up in loans.
I think that Oz could make this site better by having some phrases already preloaded in the comment box to save time for those who are sticking up for a Ponzi.
“It’s not an investment”
“I’ve withdrawn money”
“Numbers on my screen are going up”
“That’s just your opinion”
Then the inevitable “How do I get my money back?”
Oz should be open and honest about how many times he’s stated a scheme is a Ponzi and been wrong.
I haven’t read every review he’s made but I have read rather a few and he’s currently stuck at zero.
Nooooo. Automated popcorn isn’t the same as variety.
I don’t see it as being right or wrong. It’s a fact that MLM + securities fraud = Ponzi scheme. There’s literally no reason for a legitimate company to operate illegally.
If they were doing what they say they are (trading, mining or whatever bullshit they come up with), providing financial reports like a legitimate company does wouldn’t be a problem.
twitter account gone.
Sites gone dark.
Kind of wishing I had found this site before I sent them $200. Fortunately, I didn’t “invest” more than I was willing to lose.
Explain to me please how participating in this is stealing from the victims and not stealing from the criminals instead?
I/we did nothing to encourage or solicit anyone from participating. Arguably, my funding a loan prevented others from funding it, and the money I took was money the scammers already stole. I kept them from stealing more and took some of what they did.
I’m not going to say I’m morally better… stealing from a thief is still stealing, but I can still sleep at night knowing I didn’t take money from a victim of the scam; they already lost that before I took it from BCL.
Besides, I only suspected this was a scam… after I had already participated, so I went into preservation/recovery mode and took what I could. I came out ahead by $25 and change but was merely days away from a windfall when it stopped.
Let’s talk about morals: if you’re after and actually believe in 1% daily returns, it’s greed that brought you there. That and gull.
Where do you think scammers behind Ponzi schemes get the money they pay withdrawals with? It’s not like they put any of their own money up.
Nonetheless, in a Ponzi scheme when you withdraw you’re stealing other people’s money. Whether you personally recruited the people’s you’re stealing from is neither here nor there.
See above. If you do in fact have a conscious you have many sleepless nights ahead of you.
The operators definitely didn’t lose the money they put in, so where do you think the money came from?
Hint: From victims.
The moment you joined and deposited your moneys were forfeit and redistributed. Only way you could get anything back is if more victims’ money came in to redistribute. That you came ahead makes you more complicit however in the grand scheme.
That you suspected it was a scam and still joined, and withdrew more than you deposited? Well..