South Korean Authorities Shut Down $8.5 Million XRP Investment Scam

The South Korean authorities have shut down a cryptocurrency investment scam that targeted XRP investors. The operation, which impersonated the legitimate Flare Network and its FXRP ecosystem, collected approximately 3.4 million XRP worth around $8.55 million from 71 victims.

The suspects launched a fraudulent website, Fxrpntwork.com, between October 16 and 23, 2025, coinciding with the real FXRP token rollout. They offered guaranteed principal protection and fixed monthly returns of between 1.5% and 1.8%, using fake promotional content across various platforms to establish legitimacy.

Investors were tricked into transferring their XRP from domestic exchanges to specific wallets through an overseas exchange, deliberately routing the transactions to circumvent South Korea's strict monitoring systems. The operators shut down the website after collecting the funds and dispersed them.

The investigation was triggered by an overseas exchange flagging suspicious XRP movements to South Korean authorities. Investigators froze approximately 17.3 billion won ($12 million) in XRP and Tether across several overseas exchanges, but around $7 million had already been moved and remains unaccounted for.