Nivex’s Luma Protocol Ponzi scheme has collapsed.

On November 25th, Luma Protocol sent out an email advising investors that withdrawals have been disabled.

To ensure a more stable, transparent, and long-term sustainable mining ecosystem, we will be conducting a comprehensive upgrade of the current hash-power mining mechanism.

This upgrade aims to optimize the reward structure, enhance system security and sustainability, and provide users with a fairer, more efficient, and long-lasting participation experience in the future.

This is an important upgrade and is expected to be completed within 1–2 weeks. Before the upgrade is completed, the mining power purchase and withdrawal functions will be temporarily suspended.

Luma Protocol is a reboot of the collapsed Pop Max MLM crypto Ponzi.

Both Pop Max and Luma Protocol use the “shit token staking model”, wherein a shit token is created and sold to investors.

Investors then park the shitcoin with the company on the promise of additional tokens. Cashing out is available until new investment inevitably slows down, at which point the Ponzi scheme collapses.

Pop Max and Luma Protocol are run by Nivex, a crypto exchange run by Dubai-based serial fraudsters Simon Hardy (aka Szymon Pietraszczyk) and Becky Choi (aka Becky Cai).

Instead of being honest of their ownership of Pop Max and Luma Protocol through Nivex, Hardy and Cai hide behind a Decentralized Autonomous Organization they control by majority vote.

Coinciding with Luma Protocol’s collapse, BehindMLM received an email from “Renne” on November 30th.

Hi there,

I’m reaching out about your article Nivex Scam Alert, which labels us as “scammy.” This is factually incorrect and damaging.

We are a legitimate, compliant, and fully operational exchange, and we can provide verification at any time.

Could you please update or remove this description while we supply the correct information?

Thank you for your attention — happy to clarify anything needed.

Later the same day I sent the following response;

BehindMLM stands by its research, none of which you addressed.

Feel free to provide verification Nivex has registered its PopMax and Luma Protocol Ponzi schemes with financial regulators in countries investment is solicited in. Audited financial reports are also required.

Anything else will not be responded to.

At time of publication BehindMLM has not received a reply with the requested information.

Luma Protocol and Pop Max victims are now being pitched on “Luma 2.0”.

Luma 2.0 sees the Ponzi scheme ditch its LUMA token and return to Pop Max’s collapsed POP token.

This time around, POP tokens invested into Luma Protocol’s staking Ponzi will be “permanently locked”.

In other words, Luma Protocol investors will lose tokens invested into its staking scheme. This is a worse version of a typical staking Ponzi, which releases invested tokens after an agreed upon period of time.

In response to Luma Protocol’s collapse, top promoters have disappeared.

Salk Khan, a Dubai-based Pop Max and Luma Protocol promoter from Bangladesh, nuked his YouTube channel back to June 2024 after Luma Protocol collapsed.

Khan is currently in Nepal, where he’s showing Pop Max and Luma Protocol victims how he’s spending their money:

Nivex has not publicly addressed Pop Max’s or Luma Protocol’s collapse. Becky Cai abandoned social media in December 2024.

Simon Hardy represented he was in Hong Kong in early November.

At time of collapse, Luma Protocol website traffic was too low for SimilarWeb to track.