South Korean Police Dismantle $8.5 Million XRP Staking Scam
A South Korean police crackdown has dismantled an $8.5 million XRP staking scam, recovering evidence of 3.4 million stolen tokens and arresting three out of four suspects.
The scammers used YouTube videos to promote their fake investment platform, Fxrpntwork.com, which promised investors full protection of their capital and fixed monthly returns between 1.5% and 1.8%. The website's organizers instructed victims to purchase XRP tokens on South Korean exchanges and transfer them through an overseas platform.
The authorities were monitoring the market amid a rise in cryptocurrency-related crime and reacted quickly, tracing the blockchain transactions and freezing the scammers' wallets just three days after the first complaint was filed. The ringleader was arrested at a hideout in South Korea, while two accomplices were detained attempting to flee deeper into the country.
The scam has exposed extreme wallet concentration among Shiba Inu holders, with on-chain data showing 0.04% of addresses holding 94.56% of supply. BlackRock's $89.83 million reversal in Bitcoin has saved crypto ETFs from collapse, while the Federal Reserve's hawkish split is putting pressure on the market.