In Macedonia it is illegal to invest in cryptocurrency.

Following repeated general warnings about cryptocurrency, the country’s top financial regulator recently cited OneCoin as an example of a pyramid scheme.

For those unfamiliar with OneCoin’s business model, affiliates invest in OneCoin points in the hope they’ll be able to flip them at a later date for more than they invested.

As part of the company’s MLM operations, OneCoin affiliates are also paid directly and residually when newly recruited affiliates invest.

It is likely these recruitment commissions that lead to the National Bank of Macedonia claiming OneCoin has “elements of a pyramid scheme”.

The National Bank reiterates the risks involved in such investments, as an asset that provides very high yields usually carries great risks of loss.

In a Ponzi scheme such as OneCoin, widespread investor losses occur when payments exceed the rate of newly invested funds.

The National Bank’s regulatory announcement, published May 31st, also saw Malta’s top financial regulator acknowledge OneCoin “warnings and investigations” in “several countries in Europe”.