Forsage

Rug Pull

DeFi · born 2020 · ✝ 2022

A 'smart-contract' MLM that was a $300M+ Ponzi.

Forsage was a matrix MLM dressed up as a smart-contract investment platform running on Ethereum, Tron and BNB Chain. In 2022 the SEC charged its founders with operating a $300M-plus pyramid and Ponzi scheme that paid earlier members with new participants' deposits.

Peak: ~$340M taken in
Cause: Rug Pull
Year of death: 2022

☠️ Cause of death

There was no real product; the contracts simply routed new entrants' money to earlier ones, an unsustainable structure that regulators charged as fraud.

📓 Lessons left behind

—A smart contract can still be a textbook Ponzi.
—Recruitment-based 'returns' are a pyramid by definition.
—On-chain transparency exposes Ponzi flows to investigators.

🌱 The idea that survived

On-chain forensics

Demonstrated how transparent ledgers let regulators trace and prove Ponzi money flows.

#defi#ponzi#mlm