The CEO of Bybit, Ben Zhou, said Thursday that his exchange would not be amazed at the Pi token of the PI network, which was published controversial on Thursday, citing a Chinese police warning from 2023 which went that the project was a Scam targeting the elderly, disclosing their personal information and leading to the loss of their pensions.
“There are several other reports which question the legitimacy of the project,” published Zhou on X. “Yes, I always think that you are a scam, and no, the Bibit does not list the scam.”
1. Here is an official warning of the police of $ Pi Chinese police in 2023, warning the public that it is a scam intended for the elderly who discloses their personal data and their loss of their pension. There are several other reports… https://t.co/gkeu2wzwfo
– Ben Zhou (@benbybit) February 20, 2025
The PI network has not responded to the request for Coindesk comments.
The token was put online Thursday alongside the release of the project. Users who have “extracted” tokens by clicking on their smartphone screens once a day were finally able to transfer and sell tokens.
On Friday, Zhou found himself in the middle of a separate question, with his exchange, which was hacked by the Lazare group in North Korea for $ 1.5 billion.
The Pi token made its debut on OKX at $ 0.67, increased up to $ 2, then dropped by 65% and is currently about $ 0.69.
A problem that raised concerns was a marketing tactic that rewarded users who recruited other users. Whenever a user has persuaded someone else to register using their code, the first -person “mining” rewards increased. The idea had drawing comparisons with the 2017 Ponzi scheme, BitConnect.
“The PI network is the largest ponzi [scheme]”X User Cryptobeast said, displaying their 656K followers.
The project also offers users the opportunity to lock their tokens for three years. In return, they promise them increased rewards. The same technique was at the heart of the hexadecimal project, whose founder, Richard Schueler, known online under the name of Richard Heart, is a fugitive sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States to, among others, its investors.
The token has a market capitalization of $ 4.18 billion on the basis of a circulating offer of $ 6.33 billion. However, its inflationary nature means that the maximum supply is 100 billion, giving fully diluted value (FDV) to $ 67 billion, assuming that it holds the current price. During the launch, FDV increased up to $ 200 billion, almost double that of Solana.
Some exchanges have not been discouraged by the concerns raised. OKX, Bitget and Gate accumulated a total of $ 620 million in negotiation volume for PI trading pairs between them, according to CoinmarketCap.
Read more: The Network Pi token made its debut at a value of $ 195 billion despite minimal liquidity
