Cryptocurrency: stripping less than 20 years in a single day

Many young Quebecers who invested in a new local cryptocurrency have witnessed smoking their money in recent days in what feels like a classic financial fraud.

Newspaper Talk to at least 15 investors between the ages of 16 and 20 who have lost significant amounts on the adventure. They bet $ 1,000, $ 5,000, $ 20,000, or even $ 50,000.

They all saw the value of their investment drop 90% in a few hours, between April 17th and April 18th.

At an all-time high, the investment in MRS, for the Marsan Exchange Token, was $ 10 million on April 17th. The total value of the investments is now less than $ 2 million.

The situation is serious enough – and it sounds like the classic “pump and dump” – for Autorité des marchés (AMF) financiers to pay attention to.

The Commission has recently received information related to the file. “We are in the process of conducting the necessary checks on this case,” explains spokesperson Sylvain Tieberg, without being able to say more.

Promote the sale

The cryptocurrency called MRS is the creation of the Marsan Exchange, which was founded by Lavallois Antoine Marsan, aged 22, less than a year ago.

Marsan and his partner Bastian Francor launched the MRS at the beginning of March. In order to increase sales, they pay Crypto Paradise group owner Kevin Mirshahi to promote it.

Crypto Paradise, which works on the instant messaging app Telegram, sends investment recommendations to nearly 2,300 members.

The first mention of MRS by Kevin Mirshahi in Crypto Paradise dates back to March 25th. He got 50,000 MRS – 1 MRS that was worth $ 0.15 at the time – to do so.

“I wrote it was a risky currency, but I saw potential in it,” he explains.

Antoine Marcin also paid $ 100,000 MRS a few days later to fund a promotional campaign using influencers on the Snapchat network.

Then Doubleyou78, Mishka, Avatar, Tizzo, Shreez and other Montreal residents with many subscribers began encouraging their community to be interested in the new Quebec cryptocurrency whose name will be revealed on April 17 at 8 PM, the MRS.

The campaign works so well that when it is revealed to be an MRS, the Antoine Marsan token value explodes to $ 5.14. The number of MRS carriers increased from 637 on April 14th to 3,470 on April 18th.

Except that in one day, the price collapsed to $ 0.42. This steep drop is explained by the fact that someone unidentified and in possession of a large amount of SRMs began selling it once the value inflated.

The value it takes due to the cold and panic wins investors, who start selling it as well.

Everyone is pointing his finger

Antoine Marsan says he does not understand what happened. Influencers and Kevin Marshahi accuse people of misleading people.

“We were really stupid. We made two big mistakes. The first was to engage influencers without checks. The second is to pay them in cryptocurrencies, as this can be seen as an incentive to raise the price,” he offers by way of illustration.

“I was so fooled, Antoine Marcin is a good speaker who has planned his coup for a long time,” responds Kevin Merchay, who said that the mysterious person who sold everything could be none other than Antoine Marcin or Bastian Francor.

What is certain is that many Crypto Paradise members as well as many young people attracted by the greed on Snapchat have lost everything.

And that Marcin, like Francoeur as Merchahi, has been inundated with death threats since April 18th. Their addresses are widely shared on social networks.

The Laval Police Department has opened an investigation, but it refuses to disclose the nature or source of the complaint.

A quick overview of mrs

March 1: Cryptocurrency launched at $ 0.06

◆ 25 Mars: First mention in Crypto Paradise

April 6: $ 1.84 and 448 pregnant women

◆ April 14: $ 1.55 and 672 holders

◆ April 16: $ 3.02, and 1,289 pregnant women

◆ April 17th: Highest $ 5.14, 2,036 holders

◆ April 18: $ 0.54 and 3,470 holders

◆ April 20: $ 0.19, 3,337 holders