Let's take a look at the scams and tricks in the crypto market over the past ten years and see if there are any new tricks.

From 2013 to 2016, the approach was the simplest and most brutal—just issue a coin, hype it up wildly, and retail investors would rush in. Meme coins flooded the market, pyramid schemes emerged endlessly, and "getting rich through token issuance" became a national dream.

In 2017, the ICO wave hit, exchanges started to run away, and various trading mining schemes proliferated. The slogan back then was "Everything can be mined, everything can be an ICO," with projects going from whitepaper to fundraising and cashing out, even the most outrageous concepts found takers.

Around 2019, funding schemes evolved to the extreme. Models like PlusToken promoted "high-yield staking" as a perpetual motion machine, promising 30%, 50% annual returns, until the crash finally woke people up. Meanwhile, DeFi narratives began to infiltrate the market, using new packaging to continue the same game.

After 2021, blockchain games and the metaverse took turns to appear, each claiming to be disruptive innovations, but in the end, it was just the same old story with a different coat.

Let's look forward to some new tricks in 2026.