256 CommentsThe following article reflects the author’s opinion alone and is not investment advice.
There’s been quite the buzz over a coin called The Billion Coin (TBC), so I decided to dig a little deeper to see what all the fuss was about. TL;DR version: It’s a scam. Stay away at all costs.
The actual market cap of TBC
When I perform research on potentially profitable cryptocurrencies, I start by looking them up on Coin Market Cap. It’s a nice way to check out a coin’s price, volume, and history, and it has links to various resources about any given coin.
Unfortunately, I came to a dead end right from the get-go, as TBC isn’t listed there. No big deal—there are a lot of brand new coins that aren’t listed yet, and truthfully, finding a coin in its infancy has the potential to offer 10x the profit.
So Is TBC One of These 10x—or Even 100x—Coins?
Now let’s check and see if The Billion Coin is on World Coin Index. Again, no luck: it’s not listed there either. So it’s time to run a Google search and check out their website, TheBillionCoin.info. At first glance, it appears to be one of those cheesy slider WordPress themes that no one uses much anymore, at least not anyone who’s running a cryptocurrency promotional website.
On the site, the makers claim that The Billion Coin has a market cap in fourth place behind Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. That seems like a stretch considering I hadn’t even heard of TBC until a couple of days ago. Given the fact that I study the crypto industry day in and day out, I’m going to guess that is a lie. If that were indeed true, TBC would be listed on Coin Market Cap.
The next image on the slider says “Get out of debt fast.” It seems like they’re preying on the emotions of desperate people—a classic telltale sign of a scam. The picture of the woman cutting up her credit cards is what anyone thinking about buying this coin should do so they don’t end up losing everything they have.
It gets even worse. According to the website, the current price of 1 TBC as of a few days ago was allegedly 68.2 Bitcoin—roughly $286,000. However, today, the website claims that 1 TBC is worth 105.93 BTC. So the price of each TBC is 105 BTC, yet it isn’t even listed on Coin Market Cap? It’s almost comical that anyone would think this is true.
Apparently, The Billion Coin can be purchased and sold on the site’s exchange, but only there and nowhere else. There’s a page, and even a YouTube video (which, not surprisingly, has comments disabled), on the website dedicated to buying and selling TBC on the exchange. However, the actual exchange is “offline for maintenance,” so who knows if it was ever online to begin with.
The main question remains: why isn’t TBC exchanged on public exchanges like every other cryptocoin?
It should be clear at this point that anyone who is thinking about buying TBC should steer clear. However, those who still have a shred of hope in this project should read on.
The Billion Coin website
According to its website, TBC is going up 2% per day, every day. In other words, the creators of this scam claim that the price never drops and always goes up. That’s not logical at all if the market dictates the price. Markets go up, and markets go down; this is why the logic behind perpetual profits is fallible.
According to the TBC website, original stakeholders who purchased €100 of TBC on March 21, 2016, all received 10,000x gains in six months’ time and are millionaires. The site goes on to say that anyone who purchases soon will earn similar gains. Finally it says, “Buy as much TCB as you can afford today. The price of TBC will never be this low again!”. There’s also a video version of this post narrated by a $75 spokesperson on Fiverr.
As we stated before, at the time of writing, the alleged price of 1 TBC was 68 BTC, and it’s now 105 BTC, so it would be tough to really load up on it. To create one billion millionaires is TBC’s mission, or so the site says. TBC also wants to end world poverty. In all reality, its makers have lined their pockets scamming people and might disappear any minute.
TBC on Bitcointalk
Enough about the cheap website. Let’s take a look at what members on Bitcointalk have to say.
On Bitcointalk, there’s a thread about TBC that was started on May 16, 2016. The original poster, savasori, has a trust rating of -2, meaning “trade with caution.” He explains the idea behind TBC in one large block of text that’s nearly impossible to read. The second comment by Woody20285 sums it all up pretty well:
Anyone who has been in the cryptocurrency industry long enough knows that this type of scenario can never be true.
Another comment by leigh2k14, a legendary member on the forum, says, “Time to sell the wife and kids, I’m all in on this bad boy.” You’ve got to appreciate the sarcasm.
At the end of this Bitcointalk discussion, one user asked, “[Is] this [a] scam or not?” Mr.Pro, a senior member, quickly replied, “I don’t know if you are blind or dumb or maybe it could be both.”
The TBC Wallet Is Disabled
In relatively recent news, the TBC web wallet was disabled on January 31, 2017, and all holders were encouraged to move their coins to yet another centralized site, which apparently doesn’t work either.
Because there are no open exchanges that allow for TBC to be traded and the TBC mediated exchange doesn’t work, holders have to convince others to buy their coins. In terms of P2P sales, generally on Facebook, the only way to sell TBC is to rope someone else into the scam.
Holders were allegedly trying to sell their TBC though Facebook groups for less than $0.05 each—a far cry from their listed price of $286,000 each—just to recoup some of their losses.
The real value of TBC is 0. Truthfully it’s absolutely worthless, so don’t allow these con artists to separate you from your money by convincing you to buy this coin.
Who Does This Scam Target?
The TBC scam isn’t targeted at people who are already actively trading cryptocurrencies and understand the business. Instead, it’s aimed at people in third world countries, and it’s trying to separate them from their hard-earned money. For the most part, TBC is being heavily promoted in Africa and the Philippines. TBC scam artists are simply robbing poor people.
The sad truth is that they’re good at it. According to Similar Web, TBC’s site gets around five-hundred thousand visits per month.
Don’t Buy The Billion Coin!
To recap, the TBC scam took place between April 2016 and June 2016. If this scam, or one similar to it, comes back online, avoid it like the plague. Don’t invest in anything that makes impossible claims of something for nothing. I can also assume that the name TBC was intentionally chosen so that it might be confused with Bitcoin’s BTC.
While the makers of The Billion Coin claimed that their goal was to make one billion millionaires and battle world poverty, it’s clear that the real goal was to scam one billion people out of €100. If you’re presented with the opportunity to buy The Billion Coin, avoid it at all costs. In the future, remember that 99Bitcoins supplies you with tools such as the Bitcoin Scam Test to try to assess whether cryptocurrency opportunities are legit or not.
Had your own experience with TBC? We’d love to hear about it in the comment section below.
When tbc dream will come true
No truth in TBC, in Uganda they scammed many people and no one gained except losses
I invested into this TBC in 2017 and was asked to open a new wallet in 2018 I did not do it on time and it is still there and I don’t know what to do now
I tried the forget password on the new Tbc website and it did not recognize my email
Pls advice on what to do it is 2021 now pls what should I do?
Abeyadams1 at G m a I l dot come
I invested into this TBC in 2016 and was asked to open a new wallet in 2017. I had joined 10 other people who bought into Kringle cash yet with the change of system none of them can get into their accounts. In order to use the withdraw button I had to refer others into this scam and pay $100 yet the button never opened for me. Extremely disappointing. Does anyone know if there is a way to get our money back?
Tbc is fake ?
There are a lot of sources online that claim the currency is fake, so you may want to proceed with caution on this one.
Honestly TBC bits my imagination. How long does it take for a new crypto currency to be registered in the blockchain?
Hi
Is there anybody can help me to exchange my TBC to BTC?
Please contact me
***Email Removed***
Hi Sali,
Well, if you want to arrange this sort of a private deal, I would recommend using a decentralized exchange such as Bisq, HodlHodl, or perhaps Paxful. Then you can advertise your trade and find people looking for such an exchange. The decentralized exchange will then secure the trading process for both you and your counterparty.
CORRECTION!
In the first place, TBC is not sold, it’s free from the admin right from the start till now. Only members buy from each other, nobody pays the admin for the TBC in their wallets.
THE REAL VALUE OF TBC
Secondly, the value of TBC is not based on supply and demand like you thought, every new member adds their life value to TBC – by an algorithm – so it grows as the membership grows. It will reach it’s peak when membership reaches 1 billion. This is one of the reasons why it is so called The Billion Coin.
TBC IS DESIGNED TO BE STABLE
For your information, there are two types of crypto-currencies namely: unstable and stable currencies. Bitcoin, ethereum and most others are unstable cryptos, the value may rise and fall without boundaries. But the value of stable cryptos like TUSD, USDT etc are pegged to the value of existing fiat currencies like USD thereby making it impossible to discount at will even on the exchanges. TBC is pegged to gold and will be many times the price of a grain of gold when it reaches peak. Until then, it is not fit for the exchange market.
TBC IS A LONG TERM PROJECT
Ending poverty globally can not happen in a flash except by an act of God. Extraordinary effort is required over time to change the way things have been. The TBC private community knows this and are determined to give the next generation a different concept about money. Abundance is the keyword and with a billion users, the world will be set to use the most common means of exchange worldwide.
***Link removed***
Thanks.
Very correct my dear…. TBC is the best
Thanks dear U.A. i would like to inform you that payment of TBC admin fee is real. Here in Uganda TBC agents and companies which promote TBC are tasking members to pay the fee. They claim that if one pays the fee he/she will be allowed to send TBC to anyone without restriction and that the send button will not be off. They also say one can take any facility that is provided by TBC admin. If one pays the fee he will be able to exchange TBC coin to cash and will be able to acquire TBC business card that will enable him to buy goods from TBC merchant stores that accepts TBC. The fee is also for face verification which ends 15ths March 2020 and involves wallet upgrade to a block chain wallet as TBC migrates to a better network (from tbc009 to tbc9.net). Surprisingly they don’t accept to be paid using TBC but only accept cash. I don’t trust TBC because it robbed my money in a tricky way. Many Ugandans have lost a lot of their millions of money to TBC and there is no hope whether they shall ever recover it. TBC works in a style which you can’t realize. Here in Uganda there is one company called online Uganda investment club which promotes TBC in Uganda. This club has scammed many Ugandans in the shadow of TBC. Since we live in a poor country, this company came with good news of hope how TBC is the only savior of our problems. They told us to invest our money and promised that we are going to prove how TBC is more worth than gold every end of the month. Those who joined first started getting the profits as more were being recruited. People sold their land and others got big loans from banks because there was a source to pay back the loans. Time came when thousands had joined things got stack no more profit came. Banks and money lenders are now taking property of some investors who have failed to pay back. We were ignorant because we had never heard how Ponzi schemes work. We realized when our money was all taken. So mr U.A as you prize TBC in your country, for us in Uganda we have labeled it scam. Time came when profits were still paid, the company told investors to buy TBC coins. Each coin was bought at $135 which was many millions of dollars when people checked their accounts on the site of TBC coin site. When a person would open his account and sees many millions of dollars their curiosity raised. They didn’t know this is a trap to remove more money from their pockets to TBC. Time came this company conditioned every investor to open another TBC wallet on their site and not a site of TBC if they were to invest the following month. If one failed to open this wallet then the monthly profit would reduce by half. Because people had full trust in TBC and this company, people paid more $135 for this wallet. In June 2019 that was the end of the story. People waited for profits but all in vain up to now. When this company had realized they can no longer pay investors, In June this company called a meeting of all investors addressing them on the new plan of sustaining the club. They claimed trading in crypto currency is more risky so they want to invest in gold mining project which is more stable than forex trade. They told investors they will not be paid in period of seven months until the gold project stabilizes. They told investors to fix their money on the dashboards to the gold project if they are to get good profit after seven months. Before the date of implementing the new plan, many investors activated withdraws from their dashboard because they had no ways to pay back the bank loans. Because the system is controlled by the administration, they didn’t pay them up to now. The withdraws are still pending on their accounts. When months passed without realizing any progress, this company tasked members to pay more 10% of their investment if they are to recover their money and support the gold project. The company is doing that because they know investors are desperate and needs to recover their money. However people suspect it could be another trick of TBC to collect more money from poor. This is the way how TBC is eradicating poverty. The company is fully executing duties of TBC, collecting TBC admin fee, faking people about TBC stores which even we haven’t seen their doors in Uganda. This is a true story of the operation of TBC in Uganda. If there is anyone who claims this is false information, let him come to Uganda and prove this information.
This is a very sad story, this people are very wicked i just came across the coin myself and was very curious because i have never heard about it before and decided to do my own research about it. They all deserve to die, how can someone be so wicked?
hello, seems you are familiar with TBC. could you please contact me?
I contact you about what dear Peter? I gave a full story of TBC in Uganda. If its false let someone disapprove me. The truth remains
Oh shut the hell up