The OneCoin case: how a brilliant woman orchestrated the biggest scam in cryptocurrency history

Ruja Ignatova went from being an elite consultant to becoming a synonym for financial fraud. A graduate of Oxford and a former McKinsey analyst, this woman born in Bulgaria in 1980 had all the ingredients for corporate success. However, in 2014 she decided to take a very different path: creating OneCoin, presented to the world as the “currency of the future” that would revolutionize the global financial system.

The illusion of OneCoin: how it defrauded millions

What Ignatova promoted as a sophisticated cryptocurrency was actually something much simpler and more destructive: a colossal pyramid scheme without real blockchain technology. In just a few years, she managed to raise over $4 billion from investors spread across dozens of countries. The structure worked perfectly for the creators: while promising exponential gains, the money flowed upward in the pyramid, enriching those at the top.

The disappearance that changed everything

In October 2017, everything changed. With U.S. authorities filing formal charges of fraud and money laundering, Ruja Ignatova boarded a flight to Athens and simply vanished from the public record. Since then, her whereabouts have become one of the most intriguing mysteries in the financial world: was she murdered to keep secrets? Did she disappear under a new identity in some safe haven? Theories abound, but answers never come.

The ongoing search

By 2022, Ignatova was included in the FBI’s list of the 10 most wanted criminals, with a reward of $5 million for information leading to her capture. Her name now serves as a brutal lesson for the cryptocurrency market: that technological innovation can be easily disguised to commit mass-scale fraud. The case of OneCoin remains a reminder of why due diligence and verification are crucial before investing in any crypto project, no matter how attractive the promise.