If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a $1.7 billion dollar pyramid scheme.

(We all know the saying).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a case against 'MTI', a global multi-level marketing operation that took 29,421 BTC (~$1.7B) from 23,000 Americans.

The CFTC said it was “the largest fraudulent scheme involving bitcoin charged in any CFTC case.”

Here's how the grift worked:

• New investors were offered 10% monthly returns (120% per year) on any Bitcoin invested into the fund.
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  E.g. $10K invested, would return an additional $12K per year.
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• If anyone questioned how the fund gave such high returns, MTI would cite their use of 'high-tech' trading algorithms.
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• As long as MTI could keep new customers coming in, they could afford to pay out the old ones (a classic Ponzi scheme).
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• To keep up the inflow of new customers, they would pay bonuses to any users that referred friends and family.

Here's what we're taking away from all of this:

Sure, Crypto.com may be doing ad spots with Matt Damon and Binance might be collaborating with Khaby Lame - but, globally, Web3 is still very much in its 'wild west phase'.

So while regulatory frameworks and government oversight aren't exactly sexy, they're still needed to stop bad actors like MTI.

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