Bitcoin Forum

Anyone can create a token named 'Bitcoin' on a blockchain like Ethereum or BNB using smart contracts. But that's a different kind of scam. But the fake Bitcoin that I want to talk about, is actually created by some exchanges themselves!

Let me tell you. Bitcoin has a limited supply - only 21 million. Moreover, with the rise in popularity of BTC and the fear of hacking on various exchanges, more people than ever have started keeping Bitcoins in their wallets. As a result, the amount of BTC deposited in the exchanges is decreasing every day. Everyone knows that BTC is the most popular trading pair with any other crypto. But if the exchange doesn't have bitcoins, their business will go downhill.

That's why some exchanges have created their own coins with the same value as real Bitcoins by placing stablecoin collateral with bitcoin equivalents! Since exchanges do not immediately add crypto trading on their platforms to the blockchain, this leverage is difficult or almost impossible to capture. Because, common users don't understand anything.

But what is there to worry if the daily activities of the users are not disrupted? Of course there is. Exchanges that make fake bitcoins are really weak exchanges! And, trading in such an exchange is very risky! Therefore, it is better to do most of the transactions on the top exchanges according to the exchange rating on the Coinmarketcap site!

There have been so many copycats of bitcoin and we have loads of them on centralized exchanges, when you look at their logo, it has little resemblance to that of bitcoin but i think only newbies are prone to fall a victim on wrong intended coin, some has their name branded eith a blend of bitcoin in it, but for the experienced users, they will always know the difference and identify the fake ones, that's why we strongly recommend the use of bitcoin only supported hardware wallets for the storage of our coins than using compromising centralized exchanges loaded with plenty shittys.

I suppose it's possible, but that would be a very risky move for exchanges. I mean, if an exchange starts "printing" bitcoins that it doesn't have coverage for, what happens if all its clients start withdrawing bitcoins to their private wallets?

Bitcoin cannot be printed, it isn't fiat, miners mine bitcoin and that is how new bitcoins are created. Clients can't withdraw clones or copycats of the bitcoin name to their private bitcoin wallets because the chains or network are different and can't work together, for example you cannot withdraw a wrapped bitcoin (wbtc) to your bitcoin wallet, it isn't bitcoin.

Correct, besides due to the transparent nature of the Bitcoin blockchain it is possible to know how many Bitcoins each address holds.
An exchange could not claim or lie about having a sustantial quantity of Bitcoins because they would have no way to proof ownership of any address holding actual Bitcoins.

It is similar to what happens to Faketoshi, claiming to own some especific addresses but not being able to sign a message, if an exchange cannot sign a message from their alleged addresses, then they have no control over those coins, as simple as that.

during the luna fiasco.. we seen binance have many customers trying to get out of luna ,, and then into bitcoin.. BUT binance didnt want to approve most bitcoin withdrawals. instead they pushed people into moving their binance bitcoin "balance" through their sidechain to other exchanges like coinbase to then withdraw

this is because coinbase held the real bitcoin in custodial reserves when creating the matched pegged bitcoin on the sidechain months/years prior.. so although people moved "value" from coinbase to binance months/years ago via the sidechain. where binance had the sidechain 'value' they did not have he reciprocal custodianised reserve bitcoin of that peg

imagine if one day. coinbase just stopped supporting the side chain.. just decided one day it no longer recognises that network..
boom
people on binance are stuck with balance they can never claim back because coinbase is no longer listening to that network.

Yes, I know that. But the OP asked about fake bitcoins that exchanges supposedly create with the same value as real Bitcoins. I assumed that he was not referring to wrapped bitcoin but to the fake volume of coins on exchanges internally. That's why I said it would be a risky business for an exchange because they don't have enough real bitcoin to cover that volume.

Yes, it is possible for exchanges to create fake bitcoin but the question is that, will that fake bitcoin enter another person wallet when it is sent to the receive? because in any transaction process there must be a sender and receiver who receive the coin in his or her wallet with the total figure written in it but i don't think the fake bitcoin can be seen in the recipient end or wallet. therefore, dealing with such scammers should be cautioned. the 21 million btc is a very big amount of money so for that number to be absorb by the users because of fear keeping it in their wallets might not possible because, the users who keep the btc in their wallets must eat, wear clothes and do other necessary needs in the society, so people must do exchange everyday day and every night. Most people rely only on bitcoin for survival as it is. the 21 million is always in circulation. the day when bitcoin stopped moving or in circulation, there will a very big problem in the whole world. Warning be careful  with your transactions always.

Scams are common in the cryptomarket. The exchange itself getting into such act is really worse. Earlier I came across a scam in which a team worked to trap people and helping them buy bitcoin at low price. The Bitcoin gets displayed on the wallet that is being developed by them. Here we won't be able to make a transaction amd later the people understood. By the time the person who trapped might've gone to some corner of the world.

Try to look on CMC and hover up on that search button and enter the keyword bitcoin and you would find lots of coins which does have a Bitcoin word on name of it which its never been a new thing.
Lots are trying to make use of the word Bitcoin but using up other blockchains.Dont know on what they do have in mind and trying to believe that it could really get that attention on what Bitcoin
had able to attain? Thats why as a noob then it would be sensible that we should really make some indepth research about Bitcoin.You could eventually point out which one is the original one
by just looking on the numbers.

Can exchanges do this? If they don't own the amount of bitcoins they claim to have, it's a scam. To store bitcoins in cold wallets in order to prevent being hacked it's a security measure, but they must say to customers the exact amount of bitcoins they hold on their wallets, without inflating the numbers. Also, if an user has bitcoins deposited on the platform, they must keep funds in btc, unless there is an investment option available, so the customer has to agree in lending those funds to the platform for a determined period of time for interest.

Could you give us examples of such fake bitcoins? Are you talking about coins with the word bitcoin, like bitcoin gold? Are you talking about coins that use bitcoin to give themselves legitimacy, like luna?
Stablecoins are also fake in a way because you cannot prove that they have collateral and that they're printing because there's a  real demand for their token. They could be printing with no demand and no collateral and we wouldn't even know it's happening.

Fake Bitcoin could be in your exchange wallet that you can't withdraw when the exchange platform doesn't have enough amount of Bitcoin on their hot wallet.  Sometimes exchange has a delayed withdrawal, not only on an exchange but possible in the gambling industry too.

Every crypto inside an exchange wallet could be fake, not only Bitcoin.  That's why don't let your coins sleep on exchange because you don't have control over it, remember always "Not your keys, Not your coin".

Even an exchange offers a feature of SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users) this is only their marketing strategy, anytime they have to change this feature under their term, so never trust your coin on the exchange.

Yes, I believe op have mentioned about the coins that have got the term bitcoin along. Everything is based on some form of backing, when it comes to altcoins with the term bitcoin. It is a way to get the attention of people who are new to cryptocurrency. They just fall for it considering the low price, and later understand the reality.

This is kinda scary, actually. We really don't know much the many things that many exchanges are getting into or the schemes they are devising while doing business. The thing is that they are doing this all because up to now there remains no clear, concise and implemented regulations even with big countries...and exchanges can be based anywhere they want to. The only thing we can do is be careful and never leave a big amount of digital assets in exchanges...if you are not planning to sell or convert them immediately.

Remember the proof of keys day? This is one of the main reasons it was created — to potentially expose exchanges that are insolvent.

https://www.proofofkeys.com/



Probably shouldn't overthink this as Binance doing something shady(though I'm not saying it's impossible). The disabling of BTC withdrawals was only like an hour if I remember correctly.

First, the information or data you can derive from coinmarketcap is not reliable. Does coinmarketcap have a mechanism that would know whether the volume submitted by exchanges upon which ratings and ranks are based are fake or not?

But the simple and straightforward solution to this is to avoid centralized exchanges. Your Bitcoin in custody of exchanges could really be there or not, could be fake or not. So to make sure your Bitcoin is real, keep them in non-custodial wallets.

Yup it’s definitely possible, and the OP also mentioned about the same that already few exchanges doing this shaddy thing
I mean not the popular exchanges are doing this, so why the hell you want to trade on these petty scam exchanges?
I know the scams won’t stop, but yes we can avoid it right. I also heard about this same thing few weeks ago. But what what to do regarding this?
It’s better if we keep out support for trading exchanges till Binance and Kucoin.

You don't own any Bitcoins if they're on an exchange.

It's basically an IOU until you actually withdraw them into your own wallet.

You need to make sure that you, and only you, have the private key to the wallet you're receiving Bitcoin.

Some exchanges even have delayed withdrawals. That's for them to ensure they have enough real Bitcoin to pay for everyone. And if they don't have enough, they will just halt withdrawals.

Don't be the one that didn't withdraw their money before it's too late.

I always avoid crypto that is traded privately and is always closed in the Paramida system, in my opinion it is fake crypto and fake crypto or bitcoin, while legitimate crypto or bitcoin is crypto that is always traded openly, if there are parties claiming to be cryptocurrency developers, but there's a Pyramid scheme behind it all, so you can be sure it's all fake, the main purpose of which is to steal other people's property.

This is nonsense, but it's reality, if they circulate fake bitcoins only on small exchanges, why don't we report this, rummage the exchange, luckily I never use small exchanges, at least I prefer to trade on Binance, Bittrex, Poloniex , this third market is safe enough for me to buy bitcoins, and it's a shame in my opinion that there is such a thing, whether it aims to bring down bitcoin's popularity in the eyes of the public, or is it just an accomplished scammer who wants to get money instantly...

How about the BEP2 and BEP20 on Binance? Also some others on those exchanges like Binance. Not only weak exchanges are taking advantage of bitcoin pegged altcoins. That is not even the issue, the issue is that the exchanges are listing the altcoins with bitcoin deposit and withdrawal list, which supposed not to be.

Bitcoin counterfeiting is very famous now and there are also some people who forge Tokens by naming Bitcoin, it looks like this will not work. Actually, this Bitcoin cannot be printed, it is not the same as fiat because Bitcoin cannot be printed, but we have heard a lot about Bitcoin imitators now, but for experienced users they will not be wrong about this.

Recently i came across a project that bears similar name to an already existing / successful project, but I have come to understand that there are lot of scams now in the crypto space which is why every crypto enthusiasts should trade cautiously. Any project can archive a great success even without creating their token similar to an existing successful project like BNB, eth and BTC, these projects just have to add funds into their token if they want to make success.


Exchange is not a safe place to store Bitcoin or crypto asset unless it's a day trader or a future trader but if an investor really plans to hold his/her crypto asset for long, they must not store it on an exchange instead a cold wallet is safer. Asset may be totally lost once exchange is hacked.

Because this is very difficult to prove, unless some insider information comes out. As there is no public ledger of internal transactions on the exchange, it is impossible to determine the actual volume on the exchange.


And that is assuming the "big exchanges" are completely honest with their customers. How can you be certain of that?

You can always import the address they give you in the exchange into a watch-only wallet, and you'll see exactly what they're doing with "your" Bitcoins. Bluewallet (https://bluewallet.io/) lets you do this easily, you just paste the address into a new wallet.

You'll see that when you deposit Bitcoin there it shows up nicely, but then after a bit they transfer those coins out, while still showing you in their website the same balance you had before.

I would recommend anyone to do that so that they understand that the exchanges are the real owners of those Bitcoins until you withdraw them.

Always keep your Bitcoin in your own cold storage.

He should have corrected what he wrote in the thread he made so that everyone would not misunderstand the statement he made, because the context of the writing and its meaning are very different. In my opinion, if something like this is only to attract newbies, on the contrary, it will make all newbies who are new to cryptocurrencies very confused between coins and Bitcoin. So basically this thing needs to be fixed to convince them.

In this regard, I've come across some coins claiming btcs and so on that it's Satoshi Nakamoto nee project, that it's also bitcoin and sonebsort of trashy statements that are below ordinary reasonings, if you don't go after get rich quick then you won't fall a victim to those kind of scam projects in the name of testnet, i believe an experience user or bitcoiner will bebable to distinctly distinguish between the real bitcoin frombthe fake ones.

I really do not understand how people fall for it though? I mean bitcoin is bitcoin and it is at the top of the list of every place which means that it is just bitcoin and I do not think that it would matter that much. On the other hand, we are talking about stuff like bitcoin cash or bitcoin gold or whatever it is named and they are not going to be that much of a big thing on volume and not going to be listed everywhere.

If people fall for it and buy it because it is cheap and they think they are buying the real bitcoin for such a cheap amount so they can sell it somewhere else then they are doing the wrong deal, I personally wouldn't want that to happen, which is why I believe that it is a mistake of their own and they should fix it, we have no obligation at all.

Some criminals are way too smart and they can do different ways to fool people especially if they lack knowledge in cryptos. If you think you are smart and well experienced then you think are immune of this but not all are like you. Bch and btg are actually popular but not as popular as btc of course however they are also being listed in many exchanges where btc is also listed.

These coins are not fake but a criminal can create a fake version of it but when someone buys these coins (the original bch and btg) thinking it was the real btc, then that is a different story anymore. They need to educate their selves properly to know the difference.

Fake bitcoin or crypto are common nowadays. The $15 billion crypto scam is unforgettable. That's a "one coin scam" all over the world. We discover different new varieties of scams by using technology. Like scam token drops, random airdrops will interact with our wallet. Later, all our coins will vanish from our wallets. So we all need to be really careful so you won't be a victim of this ponzi.

Exchanges can create as much fake bitcoin as they wish, even beyond the 21 million limit which is being dictated by full nodes and the consensus rules they dictate. It is called fractional reserve banking, but in the case of exchanges specifically, that will mean they operate on fractional reserves lying to traders about how much they can withdraw. Why do you think almost all popular exchanges out there have different promotions, welcome bonuses, staking pools, and similar stuff? The goal of all that is to incentivize traders to never withdraw, to never claim what they are being shown in their accounts because if suddenly everyone starts to withdraw, a fractional reserve exchange will collapse and go bankrupt because it has been insolvent all along. Their ability to issue fake "bitcoin receipts" cannot be taken away, even with strict regulations in place. It is all about incentives again since regulators themselves aren't interested in bitcoin being successful and thus not actively preventing the attempts of fractional reserve business, since, in their view, every crisis due to insolvency of exchange undermines the confidence in the bitcoin industry as a whole.

You are missing the point. OP is talking about exchanges faking Bitcoin. And this is happening. Centralized exchanges let their users do Bitcoin trades on their platform but it doesn't mean that all those Bitcoins being traded there are real Bitcoins verifiable through the blockchain.

A centralized exchange may have users keeping a lot of Bitcoins in their wallets. These Bitcoins stored in centralized exchanges may not really be there in reality. That is why a number of centralized exchanges were forced to halt withdrawals when users started taking their Bitcoins out because they couldn't support it any longer.

If intending to trade then a centralized exchange may be more reliable. but every possibility is not always guaranteed, right? still Bitcoin has value and it's irreplaceable once you sell it. Storing Bitcoin on exchanges without being traded is also risky. Most Bitcoin investors always keep them in their personal wallets and they pay off to keep collecting them as long as they see a decline. As it is currently happening Bitcoin is better kept in a cold wallet. I may have come across an exchange like the one you are referring to. But unfortunately, I forgot and in 2019 I found an abnormality where the price of Bitcoin was not the same as Bitcoin. I mean the huge price gap makes me suspect that such an exchange is trying to manipulate novice traders.

Many people are starting to emulate bitcoin now, not only can it be run over the ethereum or BNB network, but many other centralized smart contracts can be used.
If you look closely, the logo they use is actually very similar to bitcoin, making it difficult for some beginners to recognize it. But in my opinion the chance to commit fraud is very small, because almost everyone knows exactly what bitcoin looks like.
And of course the imitators do all of that just to cheat and take advantage of some people, but sadly everyone is very well versed with bitcoin.

It is the old days people getting scammed in the name of bitcoin. Nowadays there is more awareness and people are good enough to differentiate bitcoin from the ones carrying the name bitcoin. Now the common term cryptocurrency is used as a trap, and somany unknown cryptocurrencies were suggested to people in the name of giving good return within months.

On that basis it is highly recommended that people have some knowledge before going any further here, Bitcoin has a pretty big difference with any coin, although many imitators try to make the distinction as close as possible, but back again as I said before, that the developers who try to cheat are not very smart for now, because many people are so familiar with bitcoin, even more and more people are aware of the introduction of bitcoin as a whole

Only noobs can be mislead by fake Bitcoin because Bitcoin has its own blockchain which you can check on many Bitcoin blockchain explorer while fake Bitcoin usually built on other blockchain that can’t be seen on Bitcoin explorer. Simply you can use the explorer as reference to check whether the Bitcoin you are buying is legit or not. Most of the noobs only base on the ticker name which can be easily copy by fake devs since no one regulates ticker registration.

Bitcoin has its own blockchain and all copy token that is not running on its blockchain are scam.

You must pay close attention whenever you go to change them. You will never exchange bitcoins from here on normal exchanges. Exchanges that have KYC and are very popular and widely traded are such exchanges that you will buy and sell.
Such scams we hear in the past cannot be stopped but we can avoid them ourselves. Then we never face danger and all do well and proper exchange Binance Exchange We will transact so we don't get cheated.

It's absolutely true what you said, that bitcoin has its own blockchain, The only reference that people can do is review directly in the original place, that's why I say, that scams are not very smart for now.
The issue of similar development of copycat coins can be seen from blockchaing and all token copies that don't run on the blockchain are scams, but for now I think everyone has understood the difference between bitcoin and similar coin development.

Yeah, anyone can create a "token" call "bitcoin" and start scamming people. But people will have to be really stupid or naïve to fall for this scam. I am sure anyone would do their own research before investing in bitcoin, right? They would instantly realize they are investing in the wrong bitcoin since they will have to invest in the fake bitcoin through using DEX and that would just raise a red flag for them. And most of the newbies would just google "how to buy bitcoin easily" and I am sure they will end up in a centralized exchange with good reputation.

And what you said about exchanges might create "fake bitcoin" isn't actually creating "fake bitcoin". Probably "fake balance" that shows users have certain amount of bitcoins in their balance (only numbers no real coins) but the exchanges don't actually have those bitcoins.

So many scams out there im the market and we need to be very careful of how we transaction and buy our coins because there are so many scams in the market and all we need to do I'd to make sure we keep buying our coin from reputable exchange or through peer to peer alternatives.
Yes Bitcoin is a good exchange ana we should make sure we keep using exchanges like Binance which has good peer to peer settings enabling users to buy and sell there coin with risk  free policies that prevent both buyers and sellers from scammers.

We can't actually label them as fake bitcoin because exchanges never pretend those tokens as real BTC but knowing the fact bitcoin has the most popularity and no trader can't avoid using it then they go for such moves of creating their own tokens with same value as Bitcoin but I don't think any exchange enforced their users to convert the Bitcoin to the pseudo bitcoin tokens.

Expert practice shows that if a crypto exchange listed a phishing token under a similar name, it is highly likely to be a scammer's exchange.
Even so, should someone decide to buy such a coin on the DEX, you wouldn't call it a wise decision but a rather silly thing to do.

Wow! This is a timely update. Never heard of it before.