Bybit CEO Publicly Warns Off Pi Network, Citing Scam Claims and Police Advisories

By KMatt | Blogging Crypto | 24 Feb 2025

Pi Network, a smartphone cryptocurrency project that has attracted tens of millions of users worldwide with promises of easy crypto mining, is in the middle of scandal. Ben Zhou, the CEO of Bybit cryptocurrency exchange, has publicly labeled Pi Network a scam based on official police advisories and raised questions about its legitimacy.

Pi Network, which went live in 2019, stands out through a novel approach to cryptocurrency mining, enabling smartphone users to directly mine Pi coins on their phone without the need for energy-sucking hardware. This "mobile mining" is touted as convenient and energy-sparing compared to conventional mining, such as with Bitcoin. Users, or as they are referred to as being "Pioneers," simply tap on a button each day using the Pi Network app to "mine" Pi coins, contributing to the network's security and strength in their "security circles."

But all the fundamental mining process and widespread usage despite it all, Pi Network has attracted increasing skepticism and skepticism. The critics are questioning the real worth of the Pi coin and also the technology itself, as the project had been in "enclosed" mainnet mode since December 2021, with restricted external connectivity and useful real-world application. There have also been concerns over data privacy, with some wondering if the network might be involved in mass data harvesting of its millions of users. The openness about the technology as well as the motive of daily "mining" activity has also raised eyebrows.
Apart from the growing concern, law enforcers also gave warnings about Pi Network.

Police in China allegedly warned people in 2023 that Pi Network is a pyramid scheme that can swindle the elderly and leak personal data. Vietnamese authorities have also recently cautioned investors against the project, citing Pi Network's recruitment and multi-level marketing tactics and the lack of a sustainable business model to support guaranteed high returns. The outrage was further fuelled when Bybit CEO Ben Zhou wrote strongly about listing Pi Network on his exchange. On the 21st of February, 2025, the same day that Bybit experienced a major hack, Zhou openly posted a warning that implies Pi Network is a scam.

Drawing from his forex trading experience, Zhou displayed fear for some issues involved with users seeking to withdraw their funds, demonstrating the wish to avoid such problems in the world of cryptocurrency. His statement has only served to fuel controversy over the legitimacy of Pi Network, urging potential users and investors to be extremely cautious. On top of accusations of scams are concerns regarding the tokenomics and marketing strategies of Pi Network. When the PI token initially debuted on the OKX exchange, it opened up at $0.67, briefly spiked to $2, before taking a precipitous 65% drop and closing at about $0.69. One of the largest criticisms directed towards Pi Network is its referral mechanism, with the users earning for inviting people on board.

The policy has been compared with the ill-famed Bitconnect Ponzi of 2017, with the majority of the crypto community showing warning signals. Crypto heavyweight personalities, such as X user CryptoBeast, have taken it to public platform to even term Pi Network the "biggest Ponzi scheme," consistent with widespread distrust amongst their gigantic followers. Added to these problems is the token locking mechanism of Pi Network, giving users greater rewards for tying up their tokens for longer periods, a maximum of three years. This method is the same as used by the HEX project, initiated by Richard Schueler (or Richard Heart), presently wanted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on investor fraud charges among others. Despite the controversies, the PI token has achieved a significant market capitalization, with an estimated market capitalization of $4.18 billion and a circulating supply of 6.33 billion tokens. However, the inflationary token model, with a supply of 100 billion, has a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of a mind-blowing $67 billion at its current price.
Its FDV briefly touched $200 billion at its peak launch, even surpassing that of established cryptos like Solana.

Contrary to the expectations of most, despite warning signs, exchanges like OKX, Bitget, and Gate have witnessed gigantic volumes for PI pairs, in excess of $620 million on CoinMarketCap, showing on-going, if perhaps speculative, demand for the token.

Since Pi Network is about to enter an "open network" phase, with guarantees of external connectivity and increased use for its coin, the cumulative warnings by Bybit's CEO and law enforcement authorities, together with concerns about its token allocation, marketing approaches, and price, tarnishes the reputation of the project and raises extreme skepticism about its authenticity in the cryptocurrency space. Its users and investors as well who are investing or using it are strongly advised to conduct rigorous research and exercise extreme caution.