Share this article
Belgian Regulators Issue Warning About OneCoin Investment Scheme
A top finance regulator Belgium has issued a warning about OneCoin.
By Stan Higgins
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 12:22 p.m. Published Jul 11, 2016, 3:52 p.m.
A top financial regulator in Belgium has issued a warning about OneCoin, a digital currency product that has frequently drawn fraud accusations.
The notice, published this weekend, states that remarks from promoters that OneCoin has received the institution's tacit approval are "false and misleading".
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Despite the claims, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) said that it had no regulatory powers to speak of in relation to digital currencies, and the note itself constitutes little more than a warning about getting involved with products like OneCoin.
The notice reads:
"Certain people have recently been promoting OneCoin, said to be a virtual currency based on cryptography, in Belgium. The FSMA wishes to warn the public that OneCoin has not received any form of recognition whatsoever from the FSMA. The same is true of the persons who are promoting OneCoin: They do not hold an authorization or any other form of recognition from the FSMA."
OneCoin functions with a multi-level marketing system whereby people purchase packages of "tokens" that can then be redeemed for access to a "mining" platform. OneCoin marketing materials offer significant returns for those who can get others to sign up, a characteristic that invokes so-called pyramid schemes whereby the biggest gains go to those at the top of the structure.
The post goes on to reiterate past warnings about digital currencies as a whole, pointing to cybersecurity and price volatility risks publishes in 2014 and 2015 by the FSMA and the Belgian central bank.
Reports indicate that regulators worldwide have taken notice of pitches like OneCoin and their promises of quick riches.
As reported by Bangladesh news service Bangla Tribune, a group of individuals involved in the promotion of multi-level marketing schemes including OneCoin were arrested in mid-June. The arrests reportedly involved the country’s counter-terrorism forces.
German regulators are also looking into OneCoin. Major German newspaper Der Spiegel reported in early June that the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the country’s main financial services regulator had opened an investigation.
MLM news site BehindMLM has reported in the past that other regulators in Europe are investigating OneCoin as well.
Image via Shutterstock
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
LUNC Surges Over 160% in a Week as Do Kwon Sentencing and Token Burns Draw Traders
The rally is driven by speculation that a final verdict could bring clarity to the project, as well as technical factors like token burns.
What to know:
- Terra Classic (LUNC) surged 74% to $0.0000072, up 160% in the past week, on exploding trading volume, ahead of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon's sentencing on Dec. 11.
- The rally is driven by speculation that a final verdict could bring clarity to the project, as well as technical factors like token burns, with 849 million LUNC destroyed in the past week.
- The token's momentum is also fueled by Binance's pause on LUNC withdrawals ahead of the Terra Chain's v2.18 upgrade, which aims to improve network stability, despite the token remaining volatile.
Top Stories
