In an official statement, the Swedish Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit organization aiming to promote the use of Bitcoin in Sweden, has warned against cryptocurrency OneCoin being a scam or pyramid scheme.

Mats Henricson, chairman of the Swedish Bitcoin Foundation, wrote (loosely translated):

“Bitcoin Foundation draws attention to the phenomenon Onecoin. Onecoin has grown immensely large and billion has been put into this phenomenon. But Onecoin is not like the crypto currencies compared with, such as Bitcoin. Without an inspectable block chain, open break and independent venues so it is impossible to independently ensure that Onecoin not a scam or a pyramid scheme. It is thus expected to solely rely on the underlying the declaration. We therefore conclude that there is a great risk that Onecoin is a fraud and therefore calls for caution”.

Launched by Dr. Ruja Ignatova around July of 2014, OneCoin claims to be the first transparent and global cryptocurrency. Its website states that OneCoin's new and unique blockchain will set a new industry standard by storing KYC information, running every minute and is tailored to customer and merchant needs.

Scam-buster Ethan Vanderbuilt wrote: “OneCoin is a pyramid scheme disguised as a new digital currency.  Any money you spend will not be refunded once you login to your OneCoin account.  They use the history of the increasing value of bitcoins to sucker you into their scam. Each individual who profits does so primarily from the payments of others who are themselves making payments in order to obtain their own profit.”

In July 2016, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) issued a warning saying that neither OneCoin nor the persons promoting OneCoin have been recognized or authorized by the FSMA.

“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. Generally speaking, there are no specific rules governing virtual money that the FSMA could enforce.”