I've seen this reasoning thrown out on nearly every post pertaining to Bitconnect or some other investment opportunity being a scam.
Every LEGITIMATE brokerage I've used, like Tradeking, has a referral program. My dropshipping sites, have referral programs where I give a % of the profits to the affiliate. Go to shareasale or flexoffers, both are affiliate program hubs for big businesses and brands like Chanel, Best Buy, all the way down to small start up businesses. Every business you can think of, uses a referral program. Why? Because it's less expensive paying innovative, driven individuals who have a strong profit motive to sell a product or service, than it is to hire a big marketing firm to construct a campaign.
The #1 tell tale sign of a pyramid scheme is - If you HAVE to invest money in order to refer someone ala Empower Network, Copy Paste Cash (if you used the internet for a while you may have heard of these). Bitconnect, Control Finance, you do not have to invest any money to use their referral program. Coinxl appears to require an investment to use the referral program, as well as signing up under someone.
I had to write this post because it seems that people on all sides are misleading their followers. Referral program is not the telltale sign of a scam, whatsoever.