This story doesn’t belong to just me—it belongs to the dozens of people I now know who were tricked the same way. We all believed we were early investors in a crypto launchpad tied to a real, reputable exchange. What we didn’t realize was that we were being slowly, expertly manipulated by a group of scammers who had studied the crypto world in detail.

The platform was called OKLaunch, supposedly a partner product from OKX, a well-known crypto exchange. The site was promoted as an exclusive launchpad for vetted DeFi and metaverse projects. They advertised “early allocation access” for upcoming token sales, similar to the launchpads used on Binance and KuCoin.

At first glance, the platform appeared to be backed by OKX. The logo was almost identical. The domain name was oklaunch.finance, which felt legitimate enough. They posted “official” launch calendars, roadmaps, and detailed token metrics. They even had a press release published on a medium-sized crypto blog, which added another layer of credibility.

To participate in token sales, you had to deposit USDT into a wallet address they provided. The minimum to enter a tier was $500, and the top tier required $5,000 or more. I started small, putting in $1,000 for a new metaverse token called MetaSprint, and everything seemed normal. I received a confirmation email, an allocation receipt, and a dashboard showing my token balance.

Soon after, they opened registration for the next sale. I went in with more—another $3,000—thinking I was securing early access to a high-potential project. This time, they claimed it was for a token backed by an AI company.

But then, things started to fall apart. A friend of mine, who also joined, asked in the Telegram group why his tokens hadn’t arrived in his wallet after the sale. His message was deleted, and he was removed from the group. We all started comparing notes—none of us had received the actual tokens. The dashboards were showing fake balances, and the smart contract address we were given wasn’t linked to any real liquidity.

I checked the token contracts on BSCScan and Etherscan—they didn’t even exist.

Panic set in. The Telegram group was closed the next day. The website went offline the day after that. The fake OKX branding? Gone. The scam had run its course, and they disappeared with what many estimated to be over $5 million in deposits.

We filed reports with domain registrars, exchanges, and even tried tracing the wallets. But these guys knew what they were doing—they used mixers and cold storage, leaving no trail.

What shocked me the most was how professional it all looked. They didn’t cut corners. They copied the voice, branding, and tone of an existing exchange. They knew that crypto investors chase early access and that branding builds trust. And they used both to steal from people who thought they were playing it smart.

To anyone who stumbles across a launchpad or presale opportunity, check the domain carefully, look for actual official announcements from the exchange itself, and never send funds based solely on an email, group message, or social post. What you think is the “next big thing” might just be the next big trap.