Liquidators of Mirror Trading International (MTI) have received 9,441 claims worth nearly $395 million (6.5 billion rands) from victims of what regulators call South Africa’s largest crypto pyramid scheme. The estate is shrinking before any payouts can begin, eaten up by rising legal costs and diminishing assets.
The claims haul
The 9,441 claims represent every creditor who filed on time. That number alone gives a sense of the scheme’s scale — MTI promised investors bitcoin returns through a bot-trading platform that didn’t actually trade. The liquidators are now verifying each claim against the estate’s books, a process that could take months.
Why the pot is getting smaller
MTI’s estate isn’t growing. Legal fees and administrative costs are eating into whatever cash or crypto the liquidators have managed to recover. The longer the process drags, the less there is to split up. That’s bad news for creditors who were already burned by the scheme’s collapse.
Next steps for creditors
Liquidators have to finish verifying claims, then figure out how much is left after expenses. They’ll distribute whatever remains — but with $395 million in claims and a shrinking estate, most creditors are unlikely to get anywhere near what they put in. No payout date has been set.
