The CEO Of A Porn-Focused Cryptocurrency Just Made Off With $4.4 Million In Investor Funds

In the wake of Bitcoin’s meteoric price rise, everyone’s looking to get a piece of the cryptocurrency pie. Because of that, people are willing to invest in new coins all the time, sometimes without the due diligence.

That’s just what happened recently, and the investors paid for it dearly. All because they decided to invest in a cryptocurrency geared towards porn.

Four investors in a new digital currency called Fantasy Market began complaining last week that the company’s CEO made off with their money, and has refused to pay them back despite repeated attempts to contact him. Not only are they out for money, they don’t even have a way to redeem the dead FMtokens they’re now stuck with.

The CEO involved, Jonathan Lucas, was aiming to raise close to $25 million from the initial coin offering (ICO) last year according to his white paper circulated to investors. FMtokens were supposed to be used as a way to pay for live-streamed porn and camgirl sites. 

However, the venture abruptly ended in November, after Lucas was questioned in an interview about his whitepaper and how FMtokens would work. Shortly after, once he had reportedly raised close to $4.4 million, Lucas shut it all down, deleted the Twitter handle, and refused to respond to communications.

So far, his website states it’s trying to return the funds to investors, or at least that’s what the message there reads. “Fantasy Market is in the process of issuing refunds to all ICO contributors. We are issuing ETH refunds directly to the addresses that sent funds to the contract address.” Lucas has not yet been charged with any wrongdoing, though that could change in the future.

Moral of the story? Don't just invest in any cryptocurrency that seems attractive. Do your homework before betting your money.