Where Is the ‘Cryptoqueen’ Now? The Story Behind the OG Crypto Scam

Jamie Bartlett, author of “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” provides insights on the cautionary tale of the OneCoin scam.

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ABOUT

OneCoin was the promise of a hot new cryptocurrency that was sold to millions of people across hundreds of countries under a multilevel marketing strategy. But when the founder disappeared, the pyramid scheme collapsed, and victims were left with empty pockets.

Jamie Bartlett joins “Opinionated” with hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to discuss his new book “The Missing Cryptoqueen: The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It.” The group reflects on the scam’s impact in the early days of crypto and how the fear of missing out contributed to a multibillion-dollar scam.

This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso . Our theme song is by Elision.

HOSTS

Dan Ilett

Dan Ilett writes on tech, money and energy. He advises business on digital strategy and technology messaging for large deals. He is founder of Erbut - an advisory company - and Greenbang - a smart technology research company.

Anna Baydakova

Anna writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on Eastern Europe and Russia. She is especially excited about stories on privacy, cybercrime, sanctions policies and censorship resistance of decentralized technologies.
She graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics in Russia and got her Master's degree at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
She joined CoinDesk after years of writing for various Russian media, including the leading political outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Anna owns BTC and an NFT of sentimental value.

Danny Nelson

Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.

Benjamin Schiller

Benjamin Schiller is CoinDesk's managing editor for features and opinion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at BREAKER Magazine and a staff writer at Fast Company. He holds some ETH, BTC and LINK.

Danny Bradbury

Danny Bradbury has been a professional writer since 1989, and has worked freelance since 1994. He covers technology for publications such as the Guardian.

EPISODES