Candao operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

The company names two executives on its website; co-founders Pawel Barylski and Robert Wesker.

Pawel Barylski and Robert Wesker both appear to be a random crypto bros from Poland.

Barylski doesn’t appear to have achieved anything significant, which presents itself as a red flag.

Wesker markets himself as a co-creator of Grono, a Polish social media network.

Outside of his own marketing, I couldn’t independently verify Wesker’s “co-creator” claim. Grono launched in 2004 and collapsed in 2012.

Candao’s website domain (“candao.io”), was first registered in 2021. The private registration was last updated on November 9th, 2023.

The MLM side of Candao is run through OnChain Network, set up separately on the domain “onchainnetwork.io”). OnChain Network’s website domain was privately registered on March 26th, 2024.

Of note is Candao providing a Dubai address for “Candao Information Technology LLC” in the footer of its website.

Due to the proliferation of scams and failure to enforce securities fraud regulation, BehindMLM ranks Dubai as the MLM crime capital of the world.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

  1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
  2. If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.

If you want to know specifically how this applies to Candao, read on for a full review.

Candao’s Products

Candao has no retailable products or services.

Affiliates are only able to market Candao affiliate membership itself.

Candao’s Compensation Plan

Candao affiliates invest tether (USDT) into CDO tokens:

  • invest 100 USDT and receive 3200 CDO tokens over two years
  • invest 500 USDT and receive 17,000 CDO tokens over two years
  • invest 1000 USDT and receive 36,000 CDO tokens over two years
  • invest 2500 USDT and receive 95,000 CDO tokens over two years
  • invest 5000 USDT and receive 200,000 CDO tokens over two years
  • invest 10,000 USDT and receive 420,000 CDO tokens over two years
  • invest 25,000 USDT and receive 1,100,000 CDO tokens over two years

Each Candao investment tier is represented by an NFT.

The tiers allow an affiliate to park CDO tokens with the company (“staking”). This is done on the promise of an additional passive annual return:

  • the 100 USDT investment tier allows an affiliate to stake up to 3500 CDO tokens
  • the 500 USDT investment tier allows an affiliate to stake up to 19,000 CDO tokens
  • the 1000 USDT investment tier allows an affiliate to stake up to 40,000 CDO tokens
  • the 2500 USDT investment tier allows an affiliate to stake up to 105,000 CDO tokens
  • the 5000 USDT investment tier allows an affiliate to stake up to 220,000 CDO tokens
  • the 10,000 USDT investment tier allows an affiliate to stake up to 470,000 CDO tokens
  • the 25,000 USDT investment tier allows an affiliate to stake up to 1,300,000 CDO tokens

Note that 30% of all Candao earnings must be reinvested into CDO tokens.

The MLM side of Candao runs through “OnChain Network”. Compensation is paid on recruitment of affiliate investors.

Candao Affiliate Ranks

There are thirteen affiliate ranks within Candao’s compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  1. Affiliate – sign up as a Candao affiliate and invest at least 100 USDT
  2. 1 Star – maintain a min 100 USDT investment and generate 5000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  3. 2 Star – invest 200 USDT and generate 10,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  4. 3 Star – invest 500 USDT and generate 25,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  5. 4 Star – invest 1000 USDT and generate 50,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  6. 5 Star – invest 2000 USDT and generate 100,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  7. Diamond – invest 5000 USDT and generate 250,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  8. Blue Diamond – invest 10,000 USDT and generate 500,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  9. Green Diamond – invest 20,000 USDT and generate 1,000,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  10. Black Diamond – invest 40,000 USDT and generate 5,000,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  11. Crown Diamond – invest 60,000 USDT and generate 10,000,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  12. Ambassador – invest 80,000 USDT and generate 50,000,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume
  13. Royal Ambassador – invest 100,000 USDT and generate 100,000,000 USDT in weaker binary team leg investment volume

Referral Commissions

Candao pays referral commissions on USDT invested by personally recruited affiliates.

  • a 5% referral commission is paid on USDT invested by your first recruited affiliate
  • a 6% referral commission in is paid on USDT invested by your second recruited affiliate
  • a 7% referral commission is paid on USDT invested by your third recruited affiliate
  • an 8% referral commissions is paid out on USDT invested by your fourth and onwards recruited affiliates

Fast Start Bonus

If a Candao affiliate recruits five affiliates who each invest at least as much as they did, all within 14 days of signing up, they receive 50% of their invested USDT back as a Fast Start Bonus.

Residual Commissions

Candao pays residual commissions 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 there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

At the end of each week Candao tallies up new investment volume on both sides of the binary team.

Affiliates are paid 10% of new investment volume on their weaker binary team side (min 300 USDT on both sides).

  • Affiliates can earn up to 300 USDT a week
  • 1 Stars can earn up to 500 USDT a week
  • 2 Stars can earn up to 1000 USDT a week
  • 3 Stars can earn up to 2000 USDT a week
  • 4 Stars can earn up to 5000 USDT a week
  • 5 Stars can earn up to 10,000 USDT a week
  • Diamonds can earn up to 20,000 USDT a week
  • Blue Diamonds can earn up to 30,000 USDT a week
  • Green Diamonds can earn up to 40,000 USDT a week
  • Black Diamonds can earn up to 50,000 USDT a week
  • Crown Diamonds can earn up to 60,000 USDT a week
  • Ambassadors can earn up to 80,000 USDT a week
  • Royal Ambassadors can earn up to 100,000 USDT a week

Once paid out on, volume is matched against the stronger binary team side and flushed. Leftover volume on the stronger binary team side carries over.

Matching Bonus

Candao pays a Matching Bonus 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.

Candao caps the Matching Bonus at five unilevel team levels.

The Matching Bonus is paid as a percentage of residual commissions paid across these five levels based on rank:

  • 3 Stars earn a 5% Matching Bonus on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • 4 Stars earn a 5% Matching Bonus on levels 1 and 2
  • 5 Stars earn a 5% Matching Bonus on levels 1 to 3
  • Diamonds earn a 5% Matching Bonus on levels 1 to 4
  • Blue Diamonds earn a 5% Matching Bonus on levels 1 to 5
  • Green Diamonds earn a 10% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 to 5
  • Black Diamonds earn a 10% Matching Bonus on levels 1 and 2 and 5% on levels 3 to 5
  • Crown Diamonds earn a 10% Matching Bonus on levels 1 to 3 and 5% on levels 4 and 5
  • Ambassadors earn a 10% Matching Bonus on levels 1 to 4 and 5% on level 5
  • Royal Ambassadors earn a 10% Matching Bonus on levels 1 to 5

Rank Achievement Bonus

Candao rewards affiliates for qualifying at Diamond and higher with the following one-time Rank Achievement Bonuses:

  • qualify at Diamond and receive a MacBook Pro
  • qualify at Blue Diamond and receive a “Diamond Trip”
  • qualify at Green Diamond and receive a Rolex watch
  • qualify at Black Diamond and receive a “car”
  • qualify at Crown Diamond and receive a “sport car”
  • qualify at Royal Ambassador and receive a “villa”

World Pools

Candao sets aside 1.5% of company-wide investment and uses it to fund five smaller 0.3% World Pools.

The five World Pools correspond with Green Diamond and higher ranks:

  • Green Diamonds receive a share in a 0.3% World Pool
  • Black Diamonds receive a share in a 0.3% World Pool
  • Crown Diamonds receive a share in a 0.3% World Pool
  • Ambassadors receive a share in a 0.3% World Pool
  • Royal Ambassadors receive a share in a 0.3% World Pool

Joining Candao

Candao affiliate membership is 29 USDT plus an initial 100 to 25,000 USDT investment in CDO tokens.

Note Candao’s 29 USDT affiliate fee is annually recurring.

Candao Conclusion

Candao’s marketing pitch is a rehash of Robert Wesker’s Grono glory days;

Literally, today’s landscape of Social Networks is a slavery system where all the users subscribed and registered in plenty of social media apps, are daily losing more and more power and privacy as minimum, while the companies behind are benefiting from it trying to avoid the regulations and moral needs.

Candao presents itself as the “evolutionary solution” to this problem.

Given Candao was conceived back in 2021, it’s safe to say as a stand-alone concept it flopped. This brings us to the OnChain Network component, launched a few months ago.

Candao affiliates sign up, invest tether on the promise of passive returns and get paid to recruit others who do the same.

Candao’s passive returns are paid out in a shit token the company creates out of thin air. As long as there’s new USDT investment to pay withdrawals with, CDO is internally convertible back to USDT.

Candao fails to provide evidence it has registered its passive returns investment scheme with financial regulators in any jurisdiction.

This includes top sources of Candao website traffic, as tracked by SimilarWeb for July 2024; Germany (63%), Poland (21%, down 84% month on month), Switzerland (9%) and Hungary (8%).

Thus at a minimum, Candao is committing verifiable securities fraud and operating illegally.

As it stands, the only verifiable source of revenue entering Candao is new investment.

Using new investment to pay CDO ROI withdrawals would make Candao a Ponzi scheme.

Additionally with nothing marketed or sold to retail customers, the MLM side of Candao operates as a pyramid scheme.

As with all MLM Ponzi schemes, once affiliate recruitment dries up so too will new investment.

This will starve Candao of ROI revenue, eventually prompting a collapse.

The math behind Ponzi schemes guarantees that when they collapse, the majority of participants lose money.