You know, I recently came across the story of Ruja Ignatova again, and it still amazes me with the scale of her audacity and manipulation. The Bulgarian-German scammer created OneCoin, which became one of the largest Ponzi schemes in cryptocurrency history. The amount of damage is simply shocking — estimates range from 4 billion to 12.9 billion pounds.

Born on May 30, 1980, in Ruse, Bulgaria, she moved to Germany in childhood. She held a doctorate in international law and worked at McKinsey — on paper, she appeared to be a successful career woman. But everything changed in 2014. Ruja Ignatova launched OneCoin, positioning it as Bitcoin’s killer and promising investors from over 100 countries astronomical profits. The main trick was false claims of blockchain technology support. There was no technology at all, just a pure financial pyramid.

In 2016, she went all-in, claiming that in two years no one would remember Bitcoin. That was the peak of her self-confidence. October 2017 — a flight from Sofia to Athens, and Ruja Ignatova simply disappears. Since then, everyone has been hunting for her: the FBI included her in the list of the 10 most wanted in 2022 with a reward of 5 million dollars, Europol also announced a manhunt, although their 4,100 pounds seem like mockery.

The theory that she is hiding in Russia or Greece under armed guard sounds like a thriller. Fake passports, possible plastic surgery, connections with the Bulgarian mafia — all of this makes her search almost impossible. The last confirmed appearance was at Athens airport, and that’s it. No photos, no traces.

The craziest part — OneCoin continues to operate in some African and Latin American countries, attracting new victims. Ruja Ignatova’s story has already inspired several documentary projects, including the BBC podcast “The Missing Crypto Queen.” Her case is a clear lesson on why it’s important to be more critical of promises in the crypto world and always verify the actual technological foundations of projects.