Ben Oberg, identified as a business owner of Millionaire Mafia, operates Crypto Mafia, a scheme that solicits bitcoin cash gifts. The enterprise uses a 3x7 matrix structure for its compensation plan. Crypto Mafia lacks any retailable products or services, meaning affiliates can only promote membership in the scheme itself.
The domain for Crypto Mafia, cryptomafia.co, was registered privately on December 30th, 2016. Investigations into the operation's leadership reveal four administrators managing its official Facebook page: Kayla Marie Odenborg, George Prince, Jessie Hachey, and Eryn Hubbard. Posts on their personal social media accounts suggest Crypto Mafia is linked to an entity known as "Millionaire Mafia."
Ben Oberg, also associated with Millionaire Mafia, is based in Washington State. He describes Crypto Mafia on his personal website as an "uneducated way of obtaining bitcoin." Millionaire Mafia's primary marketing tactic involves spamming Instagram with promotional photos and accompanying text.
Crypto Mafia's compensation plan is structured around a 3x7 matrix where participants gift bitcoin to one another. An affiliate joins by gifting 0.002 BTC to their recruiter. This action qualifies them to receive 0.002 BTC from three individuals they recruit into the first level of their matrix.
The matrix expands to seven levels. Each subsequent level requires a larger bitcoin gift to an upline affiliate and promises greater returns from a larger number of downline participants. Level two requires a 0.005 BTC gift to the second upline and yields 0.005 BTC from nine recruits.
The gifting amounts escalate significantly through the matrix. Level three requires a 0.02 BTC gift and offers 0.02 BTC from twenty-seven recruits. Level four demands 0.08 BTC and returns 0.08 BTC from eighty-one recruits.
Further up the matrix, level five requires a 0.2 BTC gift and promises 0.2 BTC from 243 recruits. Level six involves gifting 0.5 BTC and receiving 0.5 BTC from 729 participants. The final level, level seven, requires a substantial 1 BTC gift and offers the same amount from 2,187 recruits. An affiliate's second upline is defined as the recruiter of their direct upline.
The structure of Crypto Mafia, with its emphasis on cash gifting and recruitment rather than product sales, mirrors other cryptocurrency schemes that have drawn scrutiny from regulators. These operations often collapse when recruitment slows, leaving later participants unable to recoup their initial investments. The lack of any underlying product or service means the entire financial flow depends on a continuous influx of new members.
Oberg's involvement in both Millionaire Mafia and Crypto Mafia, coupled with the scheme's reliance on cash gifting, suggests a pattern of promoting opportunities that prioritize recruitment over any genuine economic activity. The description of Crypto Mafia as an "uneducated way of obtaining bitcoin" could be interpreted as an acknowledgment of its speculative and high-risk nature.
The total potential payout from a fully filled 3x7 matrix, assuming all levels are completed, represents a significant sum. However, achieving such a structure is exceedingly difficult and relies on every participant successfully recruiting their full quota of downline members. The financial risk for participants is substantial, particularly at the higher tiers where the bitcoin amounts become very large.