Jon Matonis will write the story with a headline something like this "$1M+ USD bitcoin ponzi scheme collapses"
Last week, BS&T paid out 26,000 BTC in interest.
The top tier interest rate is 7%. Some people get less. If we assume everyone got 7%, then that means there is 371,428 BTC invested, but since not everyone gets 7%, the true figure is higher. Also, this doesn't include the people who automatically reinvest their interest. I've no idea what percentage of the interest is automatically reinvested, but let's assume it's none at all.
Even with these assumptions, the least possible amount invested is 371,428 BTC, or $3,298,280 at the current price of $8.88/BTC.
I assume that some forum users that are +1'ing the "yup Pirate sent me my interest yet again thanks!!!" are shill users in control of the Ponzi owner, which mix extremely well with real users that actually did just get their 7% again this week. Pirate is a good scammer. Those numbers are extremely alarming, and if you don't mind please link me to where that information comes from - is it simple addition of forum users that claim to have been paid? do the numbers come from the block chain? could Pirate be sending BTC from his main wallet to just some other wallet he controls and then claims the transaction as interest?