A new cryptocurrency HPS sank as much as 90% of its ICO price after it got listed on a bitcoin exchange. A promising blockchain project or another ICO scam?

“After my investigation, It is certainly a fraud.” A veteran crypto trader claimed on his Weibo account on January 22.

HPS is the token of the blockchain project Hyper Play, a little-known decentralized game platform and a member of Hcash(HSR) ecosystem. In this platform, HPS is said to be used to charge, consume and trade,and can be withdrawn or converted into dollars at any time.

“ The blockchain project known as Hyper Play( its token is HPS) was apparently a scam, grabbing investors’ money and disappearing, ” the crypto trader commented. ” Ryan Xu, the founder of Hcash Fund and a backer of HPS, as well as the Sun Capital( a large investor behind the program) seemed wash his hand of the matter, contributing to a sharp decline in the price of HPS token. “

After HPS got listed in the bitcoin exchange BJEX on Januray 5, it slumped to 0.7 yuan(nearly $0.1) from its ICO price 6 yuan(nearly $0.9).

The unusual 90% loss pissed many investors off. They wanted to get back their bitcoin and Ethereum donating to its ICO ,but the team behind Hyper Play refused to refund and allegedly kicked those who made such requirement out of the official Wechat group.

As the event keeps simmering, the company published a clarified statement as a respond. According to the statement, the project development is smoothly pushed forward, the team neither disappearing nor kicking investors out of the group. The company will strengthen communication with token holders and offer a weekly upgrade regarding the project development progress .

The program is said to be put into operation ahead of schedule. And HPS is expected to land on more digital currency exchanges in the near future, including hitbtc, yobit, acx and coinx.

No matter how the Hyper Play team quashed rumors, this project possesses nearly all the features an ICO scam has.

First, No website, whitepaper or a clear roadmap. You can find there is no official website for Hyper Play, not to mention the whitepaper or a clear road map,which are essentials in a crypto project. All information you could get is only a press release and many weibo posts. Moreover, related descriptions are very vague and unclear.

Second, inactive community. Often, ICO projects will provide social media platforms, such as Slack，Telegram, Twitter or Wechat groups that interested investors can join. In the case of Hyper Play, it only has a Wechat group and an official weibo account. Apparently, it merely targets Chinese investors. And its weibo account only has 108 followers, barely worth to mention.

Third, insufficient team background. Only in the press release, you could find the team members’ social profiles. In this 4-member team, nobody has a successful crypto project under his belt, and they even have little experience in the blockchain industry.

There are signs that this ICO was underway in secret, and only a small portion of nascent investors affected.

HPS’s big brother Hcash(HSR) has been denounced as a scam, which is obsessive of marketing hype and lacks a real product. HPS seems to follow the same pattern. It’s worth noting that the brain behind these two projects, Ryan Xu(@Ryan_XxOo), deleted all his weibo posts under mounting public pressure.

As ICO scams run rampant, crypto trades should take care of his moneybags. Conduct thorough due diligence before buying into a blockchain startup and have a good understanding of red flags. Thus, the Ethereum Scam Database (EtherscamDB) could be a big help.