Bybit CEO Ben Zhou stated Thursday that his trade won’t record the Pi Community’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 focusing on aged individuals, leaking their private info and resulting in the lack of their pensions.

“There are a number of different experiences on the market questioning the challenge legitimacy,” Zhou posted on X. “Sure, I nonetheless assume you’re a rip-off, and no, Bybit won’t record rip-off.”

The Pi Community did not reply to CoinDesk’s request for feedback.

The token went dwell 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 in a position to switch and promote tokens.

Zhou, nonetheless, discovered himself in the course of a separate problem on Friday, along with his trade 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 the moment round $0.69.

One problem that raised issues was a advertising and marketing tactic that rewarded customers who recruited different customers. Every time a person persuaded another person to enroll utilizing their code, the primary individual’s “mining” rewards have been elevated. The concept had some drawing comparisons to the 2017 Ponzi scheme, Bitconnect.

“Pi Community is the greatest ponzi [scheme],” X person CryptoBeast alleged, posting to their 656K followers.

The challenge additionally presents customers the choice of locking their tokens for so long as three years. In return, they’re promised elevated rewards. The identical approach 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 Alternate Fee (SEC) for, amongst different issues, defrauding his traders.

The token has a market cap of $4.18 billion primarily based 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 issues 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 response to CoinMarketCap.

Learn extra: Pi Community’s Token Debuts at $195B Worth Regardless of Minimal Liquidity