Bitcoin’s price rocketed more than eleven-fold to break past the barrier of $60 000 (R896 000) from a low of $5 300 during the Covid-19 financial crisis.

The currency, however, decreased in value to $56 000 on Monday.

This follows the downfall of various schemes claiming to trade in cryptocurrencies. The most recent is the application to liquidate MTI. It is said that about 100 000 South African and international investors will lose R6 billion after the CEO of MTI, Johann Steynberg allegedly fled to Brazil in December last year, never to be seen again, since then.

Apparently Steynberg is the only one with access to the investments. MTI was provisionally liquidated after Steynberg disappeared and it will hear at the end of May whether the company will be put under final liquidation, which created scepticism under some investors.

But the latest increase caused even sceptics to look with renewed interest to the cryptocurrency.

Despite Monday’s pullback, many investors believe the outlook for Bitcoin’s price remains tilted to the upside.

However, investors should really be careful, cautions private forensic investigator, Chad Thomas.

According to Thomas the digital nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies makes it the ideal product for conmen and scammers.

The currency cannot be regulated through financial statements and other measures that protects investors against losing their money in other investments, Thomas told Izak du Plessis. Watch the video.

Watch part 1 of the Special Assignment insert into serial fraudster, Tracey Morrison, which aired on SABC on 2 March 2021. Part 2 will be during this coming Tuesday 9 March 2021 on SABC.

Financial crime costs the economy billions and criminals are always finding new ways to syphon money while keeping their hands clean. Desperate South Africans have been complicit in money laundering by naively selling their bank accounts and personal information to cyber criminals for a small fee, oblivious to the long-term repercussions.

Hundreds of residents in the Garden Route towns of Knysna and Mossel Bay in the Western Cape have been duped out of their life savings and pensions in an alleged cryptocurrency investment scam. The victims could have lost as much as R5 million. Criminal cases have been opened against the alleged fraudsters, who have since fled the area. A private investigating company found that they operated in the Eastern Cape before making their way to the Garden Route.