Bybit CEO Ben Zhou mentioned Thursday that his alternate is not going to checklist the Pi Network’s PI token, which was controversially launched on Thursday, citing a Chinese language police warning from 2023 that alleged the challenge was a rip-off concentrating on aged folks, leaking their private info and resulting in the lack of their pensions.
“There are multiple other reports out there questioning the project legitimacy,” Zhou posted on X. “Yes, I still think you are a scam, and no, Bybit will not list scam.”
1. Here’s a official police warning of $Pi from Chinese language police again in 2023 warning to the general public that it’s a rip-off focused in direction of aged people https://t.co/LaGJqXSOXR which leaks their private knowledge and lack of their pension. There are a number of different reviews on the market… https://t.co/gkEu2wZwfo
— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) February 20, 2025
The Pi Network did not reply to CoinDesk’s request for feedback.
The token went reside alongside the challenge’s mainnet launch on Thursday. Customers who “mined” tokens by clicking their smartphone screens as soon as a day have been lastly capable of switch and promote tokens.
Zhou, nevertheless, discovered himself in the course of a separate difficulty on Friday, together with his alternate Bybit, which was hacked by North Korea’s Lazarus Group for $1.5 billion.
The PI token debuted on OKX at $0.67, rose as excessive as $2 after which slumped 65% and is at present round $0.69.
One difficulty that raised considerations was a advertising and marketing tactic that rewarded customers who recruited different customers. Every time a consumer persuaded another person to enroll utilizing their code, the primary individual’s “mining” rewards have been elevated. The thought had some drawing comparisons to the 2017 Ponzi scheme, Bitconnect.
“Pi Network is the greatest ponzi [scheme],” X consumer CryptoBeast alleged, posting to their 656K followers.
The challenge additionally provides customers the choice of locking their tokens for so long as three years. In return, they’re promised elevated rewards. The identical method was on the coronary heart of the Hex challenge, whose founder, Richard Schueler, identified on-line as Richard Coronary heart, is a fugitive sought by the U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC) for, amongst different issues, defrauding his traders.
The token has a market cap of $4.18 billion based mostly on a circulating provide of $6.33 billion. Nevertheless, its inflationary nature means the utmost provide is 100 billion, giving a completely diluted worth (FDV) at a staggering $67 billion, assuming it holds the present worth. At launch, FDV rose as excessive as $200 billion, virtually double that of Solana.
Some exchanges have been undeterred by the considerations raised. OKX, Bitget and Gate have racked up a complete of $620 million in buying and selling quantity for PI buying and selling pairs between them, in accordance with CoinMarketCap.
Learn extra: Pi Network’s Token Debuts at $195B Worth Regardless of Minimal Liquidity
