Bybit CEO Warns Against Risks of Pi Network for Lack of Transparency

Bybit CEO calls Pi Network a threat to the Inexperienced In the Crypto Industry In an interview with the Vietnamese newspaper VnExpress in February 2025, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou slammed the Pi Network the project and its native cryptocurrency $PI, a renowned crypto exchange. The CEO Of Bybit, Zhou spoke about why $PI would not be listed on Bybit that many Pi Network members do not know anything at all about crypto. They were “aunties and uncles,” he noted: no idea who on earth put blockchain upon this.

Many people ask us: is there going to be pi on Bybit? Although we dont hang out a whole lot with this project, we still do some of the fundamental research on it like other cryptos, commented Ben Zhou. His comments were geared to stress that caution over Pi Network, seemed to be on people who watched some summits in crypto.

Reason #1: Lack of transparency

Zhou has one major criticism of the Pi Network, which is that transparent but in fact was vague. Bybit was also hit by another crypto hack following Pi Network going live on an open mainnet and listing $PI on other exchanges. Over $1.46 Billion was hacked from the Bybit Platform in this hack attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group

The emphasis was on how the hack would have been more serious Bybit else if it were not for its openness, Zhou said, and that transparency is important in the world of crypto. Pi Network was also opaque to him at face value.

For lack of a visible development team, Pi Network was another red flag for him. “The really weird part is you just don't see the back-end team of this. They mention a Stanford guy, but you never see them in real life and hear their bullshit,” explained the investor. He urged for regular discussions with the founding team of the project, maybe with a live stream “so we can see what you actually want to build.” But, Zhou told me the Pi Network team went after Bybit instead of addressing the issues.

Reason #2: No Roadmaps, Missed and postponed Schedules

Zhou also had a cautionary note about delaying the roadmaps of the Pi Network. During the project, it has not been able to meet its timeline of course in making the flow moving and user-friendly so it leaves many $PI miners very disappointed as it promised a clear path to success.

Their ad claims that “you only have to click here and youll make a ton of money” for free, though how to make money is not clarified. More people get nothing and sometimes there are drops as Zhou put it. He also made the Pi Network and meme coins comparisons where he said, the Pi Network was more close to a Ponzi scheme in its mining campaign. Those who joined in the beginning will reap the benefits leaving the latecomers with nothing real.

Reason #3: Enticing New Beggars

Bybit CEO Pi Network is a generational pile of shit that has absolutely no concept of how hard money works according to Wangtang The meme coin traders at least have the risk management dialed (or they are nimbus), Zhou explained that Pi Network is full of people who have little to no idea about the crypto dangers.

“Meme coin players are aware and they own their decision. With Pi the project attracts more users meanwhile the holders of the project do not know what happens around,” Zhou said about Pi Network which he also called a project for green hands but with no proper training.

Zhou's comments indicate the peril signs of Pi Network and state that the model can be more dangerous for unexposed crypto to do more damage.

To sum up, Ben Zhou said something on Pi Network that demonstrates the necessity of transparency, transparency, and responsible development in crypto as always. The built-it-b backward approach will face trust issues with the normal serious investors that the industry is evolving beyond at Pionetwork for example.