CryptoGold provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The CryptoGold website domain (“krypto-gold.com”)  was registered on July 29th, 2016. Michael Bauer is listed as the owner, with an address in Cologne, Germany also provided.

CryptoGold has another website set up at “cryptogold.de”, on which Sascha Senft is listed as an additional Director of the company. This website also has a PO Box address for CryptoGold Limited in Dubai.

It is likely CryptoGold exists in Dubai in name only and is being operated from Germany.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to find any additional information on either Michael Bauer or Sascha Senft.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.

CryptoGold Products

CryptoGold has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market CryptoGold affiliate membership itself.

The CryptoGold Compensation Plan

CryptoGold affiliates invest in $50, $100 or $500 shares on the promise of a daily ROI.

The daily ROI is paid in bitcoin and fluctuates from day-to-day.

Referral commissions are paid out on downline investment, through a complicated combination of direct and residual models.

Affiliate Ranks

There are five affiliate ranks within the CryptoGold compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria they are as follows:

  • Silver – sign up and invest at least $500
  • Gold – recruit at least five Silver affiliates who have each recruited at least two Silver affiliates and have a total downline investment volume of at least $10,000
  • Platinum – recruit at least three Gold affiliates and have a total downline investment volume of at least $50,000
  • Diamond – recruit at least two Platinum affiliates and have a total downline investment volume of at least $200,000 ($50,000 a month minimum to maintain Diamond rank)
  • White Diamond – recruit at least two Diamond affiliates and have a total downline investment volume of at least $1,500,000 ($200,000 a month minimum to maintain White Diamond rank)

Note that no more than 50% of required volume can be counted from any single recruitment leg.

Residual Commissions

CryptoGold affiliates who have invested at least $500 are paid to recruit new who affiliates who also invest.

Recruitment commissions are paid out residually via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note that there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

Each CryptoGold investment by binary team affiliates generates points as follows:

  • $50 investment = 0.5 points
  • $100 investment = 1 point
  • $500 investment= 5 points

At the end of each day CryptoGold tally up points generated on both sides of the binary team.

For every 25 generated points matched on both sides of the binary team a $200 commission is paid out.

Note that residual binary commissions are capped daily based on a CryptoGold affiliate’s rank:

  • Silver – $800
  • Gold – $1000
  • Platinum – $1200
  • Diamond – $1600
  • White Diamond – $2000

Matching Bonus

CryptoGold affiliates earn a Matching Bonus on residual binary commissions earned by their downline.

The Matching Bonus is paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

CryptoGold pay a $10 Matching Bonus per residual binary commission paid out on up to eight unilevel levels.

How many levels an affiliate earns the Matching Bonus is determined by rank:

  • Silver – $10 Matching Bonus paid on two levels
  • Gold – $10 Matching Bonus paid on four levels
  • Platinum – $10 Matching Bonus paid on five levels
  • Diamond – $10 Matching Bonus paid on seven levels
  • White Diamond – $10 Matching Bonus paid on eight levels

$80 per $200 residual binary commission paid out is paid out up eight levels. If ranked affiliates are not linear, the system searches further upline until an appropriately ranked affiliate is found.

Level-up Commissions

CryptoGold’s Level-up commissions are paid based on direct and indirect affiliate recruitment.

Downline Team 1 consists of the first two recruited affiliates who invest.

A CryptoGold affiliate earns 6% on initial funds invested and 10% on subsequent investments by Downline Team 1 affiliates.

Downline Team 2 consists of the third, fourth and fifth recruited affiliates who invest.

A CryptoGold affiliate earns 7% on initial funds invested and 12% on subsequent investments by Downline Team 2 affiliates.

An additional 1% on initial funds invested and 2% on subsequent investments by the first two affiliates Downline Team 2 affiliates personally recruit is also paid out.

The additional 1% and 2% commissions carry on for the first two recruited affiliates within Downline Team 2 down to infinity.

Downline Team 3 consists of the sixth, seventh and eight recruited affiliates who invest.

A CryptoGold affiliate earns

  • 8% on initial funds invested by Downline Team 3 affiliates
  • 15% on subsequent investments by Downline Team 3 affiliates
  • 2% on initial funds invested by the first two affiliates Downline Team 3 affiliates personally recruit
  • 5% on subsequent investments by the first two affiliates Downline Team 3 affiliates personally recruit
  • 1% on initial funds invested by the third, fourth and fifth affiliates Downline Team 3 affiliates personally recruit and
  • 3% on subsequent investments by the third, fourth and fifth affiliates Downline Team 3 affiliates personally recruit

The 2% and 5% commission carries on for the first two recruited affiliates within Downline Team 3 down to infinity.

The 1% and 3% commission carries on for the third, fourth and fifth recruited affiliates within Downline Team 3 down to infinity.

Downline Team 4 consists of the ninth and onward affiliates recruited who invest.

A CryptoGold affiliate earns

  • 9% on initial funds invested by Downline Team 4 affiliates
  • 18% on subsequently invested funds by Downline Team 4 affiliates
  • 8% on subsequently invested funds by the first two affiliates Downline Team 4 affiliates personally recruit
  • 2% on initial funds invested by the third, fourth and fifth affiliates Downline Team 4 affiliates personally recruit
  • 6% on subsequently invested funds by the third, fourth and fifth affiliates Downline Team 4 affiliates personally recruit
  • 1% on initial funds invested by the sixth, seventh and eighth affiliates Downline Team 4 affiliates personally recruit
  • 3% on subsequently invested funds by the sixth, seventh and eighth affiliates Downline Team 4 affiliates personally recruit

The 2% commission carries on for the third, fourth and fifth recruited affiliates within Downline Team 4 down to infinity.

The 1% commission carries on for the sixth, seventh and eighth recruited affiliates within Downline Team 4 down to infinity.

Generational Bonus

If a Downline Team 4 affiliate generates their own Downline Team 4 group, that downline no longer generates Level-up commissions.

Commissions on funds invested and reinvested by these affiliates and their downlines are paid out via the Generational Bonus.

The first Generational Bonus consists of the Downline Team 4 group of affiliates of your personally sponsored Downline Team 4 affiliates.

CryptoGold pay a 1% commission on initial funds invested and 2% on reinvestment by this first generation.

The second Generational Bonus consists of the Downline Team 4 group of affiliates of your personally sponsored Downline Team 4 affiliates.

CryptoGold pay a 0.5% commission on initial funds invested and 1% on reinvestment by this second generation.

The third Generational Bonus consists of the Downline Team 4 group of affiliates recruited by the second generation.

CryptoGold also pay a 0.5% commission on initial funds invested 1% on reinvestment by this third generation.

Joining CryptoGold

CryptoGold affiliate membership is $79 plus an investment of at least $50.

Full participation in the CryptoGold compensation plan requires an investment of at least $500.

Conclusion

CryptoGold’s business model sees the company claim affiliates are investing in a mining pool.

These mining rigs generate cryptocurrency (ether and bitcoin are mentioned), which is paid to affiliates who have bought shares in the mining pool.

CryptoGold provide no evidence that actual mining is taking place.

The company is also coy about the specifics of their mining operations:

Where are the mining facilities?

For security reasons, we do not provide exact locations for the mining farms. Profitability is the most important factor.

There are plenty of mining facilities around that disclose where they are located. If you invest enough, some you can even visit.

Given this, there is absolutely no excuse for CryptoGold to not disclose where its mining facilities are located. Ditto evidence of mining taking place.

That is of course assuming any mining is taking place to begin with.

Given the MLM compensation plan takes a large bite out of resources (newly invested funds are the only verifiable source of revenue), it is highly likely that all CryptoGold are just recycling newly invested funds to pay off existing investors.

The mining pool ruse permits the company to adjust daily ROI payouts based on the rate of new investment.

It also creates an out when CryptoGold exhausts its invested fund reserve and begins to collapse:

When purchasing a share you are taking all the risk and reward for whatever happens over the lifetime of your mining contract.

We will continue to allow new shares until it’s no longer profitable to do so, at this point we will close the mining pools to any new shares and payout the remaining shares for the life of their contract.

Even if we give CryptoGold the benefit of the doubt with respect to their mining pools, two major compliance issues remain.

The first is CryptoGold has no retailable products or services. This means that all commissions paid out (excluding the daily ROI) are recruitment based, making CryptoGold a pyramid scheme.

Secondly CryptoGold are quite obviously offering a security. Affiliates are investing funds on the promise of a passive ROI, which requires appropriate securities registrations in any jurisdiction CryptoGold operate in.

At the time of publication CryptoGold provides no evidence of any securities registrations on the company website.

This means CryptoGold are offering unregistered securities and are subject to regulation by the appropriate authorities.

For potential affiliates, you’re looking at investing at least $500 with people you know nothing about, operating from a place they don’t disclose – all in the hope of collecting a ROI, the origin of is pretty murky.

That’s a lot of risk to take on as an affiliate, which lends itself more to Ponzi fraud rather than a legitimate MLM opportunity.