Who’s Behind the $50M Telegram Scam Using SUI, NEAR, SEI as Bait?

A group of traders has become victims of a serious $50M Telegram scam after getting lured with a promise of discounted token allocation. An alleged Indian scammer has been running over-the-counter (OTC) frauds through Telegram and has drained millions from investors. On-chain experts have allegedly revealed the name of the prominent crypto personality’s involvement. Let’s discuss. 

How did the $50M Telegram Scam take shape?

As the crypto market gains a valuation of $3 trillion, the entire world is eyeing this industry. However, amid accomplishment, scammers and hackers are also persistent, impacting innocent traders. Recently, Iranian exchange Nobitex got hacked, and now a $50M Telegram scam has been unveiled, revealing how security and knowledge should be users’ utmost priority.

According to the crypto analyst, Altcoin Alpha’s analysis, the swindler created a Tier-1 OTC deal and circulated it in the private Telegram groups. The deal was circulated and endorsed by trusted and renowned individuals like crypto whales and venture capitalists.

Additionally, it offered up to 50% discount on vested allocation of trending altcoins like Apto, SEI, SWELL, and others. Everything went smoothly initially (Nov 2024 – Jan 2025), but it soon became a $50M Ponzi crypto scam.

With time, more and more people connect as members promoted the heavy benefits they have achieved. However, it was just a Ponzi scheme where the scammers were paying older clients with the next client’s money.

Later on in May 2025, red flags became more noticeable but were mostly ignored as they were making money. Finally, it crashed in June 2025 when the token distributions stopped. The agents went off-grid and made excuses like travel, exchange issues, and more until the Telegram scam got exposed.

On June 19, leading deal broker Aza Ventures disclosed that they had been scammed. They revealed “Source 1” allegedly running a Ponzi scheme, and soon, more deals were found, making it a global $50M crypto scam.

Who’s behind the $50M Telegram Scam?

AZA Ventures only revealed that the scammer, Source 1, is of Indian origin. They are keeping it confidential as they believe it’s their best chance to recoup investments.

However, a few on-chain experts like Altcoin Alpha, Crypto Sleith, and others revealed Ravindra Kumar (founder of Self Chain) as the alleged scammer for a $50M scam. Notably, he denied these allegations and has claimed to update the community soon.

However, no new updates from his side have been made at the time of this press release. Besides, these are just allegations, and the accusations have not been proven. So, the culprit behind the scam remains unknown as ‘Source 1’ at present.