Athene Network Review: AI crypto mining ruse Ponzi
Athene Network fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.
Athene Network’s website domain (“athene.network”), was privately registered on July 5th, 2023. Athene Network launched five months later in December.
Despite only existing for a few months, on its website Athene Network falsely backdates its roadmap to 2021.
As of December 2023, SimilarWeb tracked top sources of traffic to Athene Network’s website as Indonesia (18%), the US (15%), Benin (14%), India (14%) and Canada (7%).
Over on Athene Network’s official YouTube channel, we have AI avatar robodubbed marketing videos.
MLM companies using AI avatars is typical of low-effort scams.
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.
Athene Network’s Products
Athene Network has no retailable products or services.
Affiliates are only able to market Athene Network affiliate membership itself.
Athene Network’s Compensation Plan
Athene Network affiliates download an app and periodically click a button to receive GEM tokens.
To start mining GEM, check in every 24 hours and hit the mining button.
How much GEM is paid out daily can be increased through recruitment.
GEM token is converted to ATH token…
ATH per user will receive = Total ATH Tokens for the Mining Month / Total GEM Mined by All Users * GEM Mined by per User
…which Athene Network affiliates cash out internally into tether (USDT). I’m not 100% sure if this is the only way to do it but there’s some trash game affiliates have to pretend to play to cash out.
Both GEM and ATH were created by Athene Network and are worthless outside of the company.
Recruitment of affiliates to increase daily GEM returns makes up the MLM side of Athene Network.
Two level referral commissions are also paid on $3 fees paid to bypass KYC withdrawal restrictions (unilevel):
- level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – $1 per $3 fee paid
- level 2 – 50 cents per $3 fee paid
Joining Athene Network
Athene Network affiliate membership is free.
Athene Network Conclusion
Despite the marketing, Athene Network has nothing to do with AI.
Athene Network sees affiliates, who sign up for free, click a button to start receiving a daily ROI paid in GEM. Those that recruit more get more GEM.
GEM is converted to ATH, which affiliates cash out as USDT.
If affiliates are only paying an optional $3 KYC bypass fee, where does this USDT come from?
Athene Network is raising investment via “angel investment rounds”:
As per the official Telegram post above, Athene Network hopes to solicit 140 million from its affiliates.
There’s also a “premium package”, promising a 300% increase in daily returns for a fee.
The mentioned “trade BTC ATH” in the screenshot above seems to be a way to delay withdrawals.
Other than fleecing affiliates, Athene Network has no source of revenue. This means withdrawals have to be delayed and/or restricted.
In addition to coming up with ways to trap ATH, Athene Network restricts withdrawals by requiring KYC.
KYC processing is delayed unless affiliates pay a $3 fee (Athene Network originally charged $10).
Beyond that, Athene Network simply threatens to delete accounts of affiliates who withdraw too much.
Ultimately with GEM and ATH being created out of thin air and affiliates hoping to eventually cash them out, the problem of there being no significant external revenue generation is obvious.
At the end of the day you’re going to have a bunch of top recruiters trying to cash out, and Athene Network’s admins coming up with excuses to stop that.
With nothing beyond a $3 optional fee charged to investors however, at most Athene Network is causing consumer harm by wasting people’s time.
It should be noted that Athene Network soliciting investment outside of its MLM opportunity is unregistered and highly illegal.
What the scammers running Athene Network are promising “angel investors” isn’t publicly disclosed.
Long story short; unless you like having your time wasted, Athene Network is an easy avoid.
Thank you. was wondering why there is no market for ath and gem, figured that it is internal ecosystem bollocks and your article confirmed my doubts.