Cryptocurrency market is quite new that a lot of people are hesitant to join mainly because of the lack of regulations within the industry. And in most cases, this is where scams happen. In fact, Frankfurt-based crypto startup Savedroid was able to raise $50 million via initial coin offering (ICO) a few months back. And on Wednesday, the ICO simply left a single cryptic South Park meme. The meme says “Aannnd it’s gone”.
Shortly after, the company founder Yassin Hankir tweeted a photo of himself holding a bear by the beach with words: “Thanks guys! Over and out”.
A Blatant Scam?
Investors are worried that they had fallen victim to a scam. In fact, scams are becoming common in the crypto world today. It is often times creators running away from their investors. Savedroid is quite similar to what happened to Prodeum. Crypto scammers were able to steal the identity of Prodeum’s team and then disappeared. Investors simply learned about the incident when they were greeted by a website that has a single word: “penis”.
Tracking Down Savedroid Founder
Adam Selene writing for Crypto Briefing decided to investigate and take a closer look at what happened. After seeing the beach photo, Selene decided to hunt where the ICO founder is located. According to Selene, “the media just reports on these things, and they never do anything about it”. He added that “in this occasion, I thought: let’s do something about this”.
Though Selene reported the matter to the police, the German police were simply unimpressed telling Seline to call back in the morning.
Private Investigation
Selene decided to take matters into his own hands. He analyzed the beachside photo and discovered that the beer is actually an Egyptian brand. With that, he was able to match the photo with that of the Red Sea. From here, he asked local crypto enthusiasts in to track down where the location of the beach really is. He mentioned that “The goal was to use some of the crypto community’s asset to track this chap down”. He mentioned that the ordeal wasn’t exactly simply considering the language barrier that he has to deal with.
However, there was a twist and Hankir decided to post a video saying that Savedroid isn’t really a scam. In fact, it was a publicity stunt in order to illuminate the possibility of an ICO scam for the benefit of the cryptocurrency community.
Hankir explained in his video that “so yes, we are still here, We are not gone, actually. Never gone, actually. We will always be here for the Savedroid community in the future”. He then apologized for the “drastic campaign”.
His true motives can be considered mystery at this point. However, people are not buying the joke story. Selene mentioned that “This is not monopoly money”. And given the people who can be affected, it definitely didn’t sit well with investors. However, it is true that many have already lost faith in trusting Savedroid. Many have felt betrayed that they have entrusted him $50 million only to go out with a “prank”.
