Guizhou police in China cracked a case involving illegal activities related to "virtual currency".

According to Mars Finance, on December 18th, the Cyber Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of China released a case stating that the cyber security and economic investigation departments of Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, jointly cracked a "virtual currency" online pyramid scheme case. The special task force traveled to multiple locations and successfully arrested 15 suspects. Investigation revealed that the pyramid scheme promoted the slogan "Everything of value in the world can be tokenized," established a virtual currency trading platform without real-name registration, and set up various levels. Members participated in the pyramid scheme by depositing and pledging virtual currency, profiting by developing downlines and earning direct referral rewards. It was a network pyramid scheme with more than three levels and thousands of participants. The perpetrators established a certain virtual currency online, using the promise of high returns as bait, deliberately inflating the price of the virtual currency. They divided members into "status levels" based on their purchase amount; as the level increased, the returns also increased, thus encouraging "old members" to continue developing "new members," recruiting more people to participate in the pyramid scheme and achieving tiered profit returns.