PI, the originator of pyramid scheme coins, will be listed on the top exchanges. Only a few users can successfully withdraw coins.

The well-known "MLM coin" PI will be officially listed on OKX spot on February 20, and the recharge of PI to the exchange is now open. It is said on the Internet that a group of uncles and aunts will become rich because of PI coins.

However, Golden Finance found that only a small number of people can successfully withdraw their coins. For most people, the big pie of wealth that PI had previously drawn cannot be successfully cashed out when OKX launches spot trading. Golden Finance interviewed several PI miners, and none of them have successfully mapped their mined PI coins to the main network. OKX's choice to launch "MLM coins" this time has also been questioned.

After passing the 9th level of verification, you can enter the queuing stage to withdraw coins.

Justin came into contact with PI coins in 2019, when a friend recommended him to download and participate in the project. Mining costs almost nothing. As long as you have a mobile phone, download the APP on the PI official website, and follow the rules of PI mining, you need to click the mining button once every 24 hours, and the phone will continue to mine PI coins. Users can recommend other users to join PI mining. If the recommended users also remain active, their own mining power will double the original power.

Justin successfully invited two users. He has mined more than 6,000 PI coins intermittently so far. Currently, his account shows that more than 2,000 coins meet the requirements and can be mapped to the main network.

However, at present, it has not yet successfully completed the real mainnet mapping of more than 2,000 PI coins, and is still in the queue stage. Although it is shown on its account that the mainnet mapping of PI coins will be completed "in 14 days", in fact "14" is an imaginary number. Justin estimates that when OKX opens the purchase and sale of PI spot, its more than 2,000 tokens should not have completed the mainnet mapping.

Justin's account information, the withdrawal is now stuck at the last step

Justin told Golden Finance that currently, 9 steps need to be completed to actually withdraw the coins, including mobile phone number verification, wallet binding, KYC, etc. Justin is currently stuck in the last step, which is the main network mapping stage, and can only wait for the PI team to release the coins, and the waiting time is endless. It can be seen that the early circulation of PI coins was highly controlled by the project team and was not open and transparent.

More people are stuck at the KYC step. Lucas said in an interview with Golden Finance that she applied for KYC at the end of 2024 and has not passed it yet. Justin told Golden Finance reporters that KYC requires an ID card, a real-name mobile phone number that cannot be changed, and three facial recognitions. In addition, there are some other requirements, such as ensuring that there are five friends in the "friend circle" built into the PI APP, etc. Justin recalled that he only developed two downlines at the time, and the remaining friends were PI friends found online.

In addition to Lucas, Golden Finance reporters also saw PI users in multiple communities saying that they failed to complete KYC certification. According to the official website announcement, PI has more than 60 million users, of which 19 million users have completed KYC, and more than 10 million users have migrated to its main network.

With a huge user base, exchanges are also competing like crazy for new users

60 million users represent a large number of new users for exchanges.

PI was once named as a "pyramid scheme" by CCTV in China. Like all pyramid scheme coins, it has a great influence in the domestic sinking market. Yong, who is located in Guangxi, once joined a WeChat group founded by a "coin speculation teacher". This teacher basically recommended some capital disk projects. In the group, he also recommended PI coins. Justin, who is located in Shandong, also learned that although he has not contacted the ground promotion team, he knows that in Shandong, it is mainly some capital disk studios that are promoting PI coins.

Not only does PI have a wide audience in mainland China, but there are also a large number of PI users in Southeast Asia. It can even be said that the main users of PI are in Southeast Asia. A Golden Finance reporter went to Malaysia for an interview in 2023. A local Chinese driver in Kuala Lumpur told reporters that he would mine PI coins every day. In May 2023, he had dug out more than 5,000 PI coins. There were many people around him doing the same thing. At that time, he was waiting for the official promise of the "PI Mall" to go online, and then he could use the PI coins he dug out to buy goods in the mall. Malaysia was originally a fertile ground for the growth of pyramid schemes and capital disks. Many pyramid schemes that were popular in mainland China originated in Malaysia, such as the split financial management model represented by the popular "MBI" in recent years.

A Malaysian taxi driver interviewed by a Golden Finance reporter in 2023 (Photo by Jessy from Golden Finance)

Currently, only a few people can actually get PI coins, especially those who can unlock all the tokens when OKX spot is launched. Justin remembers that in May last year, someone was buying PI coins that had passed KYC from everyone, and the price at that time was 1.3 US dollars per coin. How can a project allow everyone to keep clocking in every day for five years without any income?

Justin told the Golden Finance reporter that he has been able to see PI updating its software over the years, and the project team has updated announcements from time to time. In the chat groups built into the PI App, although the specific number of people in each chat space cannot be seen, it can be felt that the chats of PI friends are very active. Currently, there are multiple groups divided into languages ​​in the PI App.

Chat group status in PI APP

Moreover, although the PI official website does not guarantee the economic value of PI, in the few years before the main network was launched, some users have spontaneously established shopping malls and want to use PI to redeem goods, but the specific transaction situation is unknown.

All of the above shows the strength of the PI community.

In this cycle, OKX, which has always been cautious about listing coins, chose to list PI coins when the market is currently sluggish, which also shows the lack of liquidity in the current market and the exchange's extreme desire for new users. After OKX announced that it would list PI spot, Bitget followed suit and announced that it would list PI. However, as of press time, Bitget Chinese has withdrawn the announcement of listing PI. It is reported that this is because the compliance department has reviewed it and found that there are compliance risks.

Taking huge compliance risks, they chose to launch a project that has been identified as a "pyramid scheme coin" in many places. It can only be said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to make money in this market, and exchanges are also going crazy.