Netflix's new Money: Explained series pulls back the curtain on one of crypto's biggest frauds: OneCoin, the fake digital currency that vanished millions of dollars and left its leader nowhere to be found.

The show opens by examining how technology has made scams easier to spread. BitConnect and OneCoin get top billing as textbook multilevel marketing Ponzi schemes that bilked investors out of billions. But OneCoin gets the real spotlight.

The narrative centers on Ruja Ignatova, who took the stage at Wembley Stadium in 2016 and promised the world her "bitcoin killer." Footage from that event plays as Money: Explained walks through how she used classic scammer tactics to rope people in. Igor Alberts and his wife Andrea Cimbala appear in the segment as people Ignatova convinced to promote OneCoin—though calling them victims misses the mark. Alberts made millions pushing the scheme before moving on to DagCoin, another scam he helped launch with former OneCoin insiders.

For years, the fraud held. Ignatova promised that when the time came, investors could cash out their OneCoin and get rich. Then 2017 arrived and so did the moment of truth. Ignatova disappeared. The whole operation was fiction.

Money: Explained walks through the warning signs nobody heeded. CoinTelegraph raised red flags in 2015. A year before that, BehindMLM had already pegged it as a Ponzi scheme. Regulators issued warnings. The response from OneCoin's devoted followers: denial. Ignatova herself stood on stage in 2016 and declared OneCoin "the most transparent, most powerful and most legal cryptocurrency out there." Every word was a lie.

When criminal charges came down in the US, Ruja was gone. Her brother Konstantin took over operations and eventually pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering. Yet nearly 20,000 OneCoin investors signed a petition demanding his release.

The documentary then shifts to how victims cope with losing everything. Jen McAdams runs the OneCoin Victim Support and Information Group, working to help people process the reality of their fraud. The true number of people hurt by OneCoin remains unknown, but the damage is real and the scars don't fade quickly.

🤖 Quick Answer

What is OneCoin and why is it featured in Netflix's Money: Explained series?
OneCoin was a fraudulent digital currency scheme that operated as a multilevel marketing Ponzi scheme, defrauding investors of millions of dollars. Netflix's Money: Explained series examines OneCoin as one of cryptocurrency's most significant frauds, focusing on its creator Ruja Ignatova and her deceptive tactics used to recruit promoters and investors worldwide.

Who was Ruja Ignatova and what promises did she make?
Ruja Ignatova founded OneCoin and promoted it as a "bitcoin killer" during a high-profile presentation at Wembley Stadium in 2016. She employed classic scammer tactics to convince people to invest in and promote her fake digital currency, including recruiting notable promoters like Igor Alberts and Andrea Cimbala to expand the scheme's reach

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