PANews reported on October 2 that according to Yunnan Legal Daily, in February 2023, seven defendants discussed building a network platform for investing in virtual currencies. After reaching an agreement, they contacted a Sichuan company, and technical personnel developed the "3M platform" to issue tokens "Mavro Coins" to lure investors to join the project by saying that investing in virtual currencies can make high profits. After the platform was built and operated, the seven defendants actively promoted the investment platform for high profits, and went offline to promote and develop downlines, and their downlines developed other downlines. It was identified that there were 375 users with more than 3 downline levels (including 3 levels) and a cumulative number of more than 30 downlines (including 30). The seven defendants made profits ranging from 4,300 yuan to 20,000 yuan.
After trial, the Xichou County People's Court held that the seven defendants used the "3M platform" to issue virtual currency, lured investors to join the platform by offering high profits from investing in virtual currency, and formed a hierarchy in a certain order, using the number of people they developed as compensation for profit. Their actions constituted the crime of organizing and leading pyramid selling activities. Based on the defendants' roles in the crime, the level of development, their confession and acceptance of guilt, and the return of stolen money, they were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from two years and six months to one year and six months, suspended sentences, and fines.