DAO1 fails to provide ownership or executive information on either of its websites.

DAO1 operates from two known website domains:

  1. dao1.ai (main website) – privately registered on November 19th, 2024
  2. dao1.info (marketing funnel) – privately registered on December 11th, 2024

Of note is DAO1 hiding its primary .AI website from public search engine indexing:

This is a red flag, as it suggests DAO1 is attempting to avoid public and/or regulatory scrutiny. Irrespective of any other conduct, hiding a website is not something a legitimate MLM company would do.

Also of note is the use of “mio” in DAO1’s official marketing material:

“Mio” is a German abbreviation for “million”. This suggests whoever is running DAO1 at the very least speaks German.

As per DAO1’s .AI website Privacy Policy;

The Site is hosted in the European Union and is intended for visitors located within the European Union.

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.

DAO1’s Products

DAO1 markets access to passive returns, derived through automated trading bots and an apertum token (APT) mining bot.

DAO1’s automated trading bots operate like any other trading bot. Investors place funds under control of the centrally operated bots on the expectation of a passive return.

Apertum token appears to be owned by whoever is running DAO1. Apertum token has its own website set up at “apertum.io”, privately registered on April 21st, 2023.

As per the marketing slide above, DAO1 markets APT mining as a “long term” income opportunity.

Access to DAO1’s trading bots and APT mining costs between 50 to 10,000 USDT annually:

  • Lunar – 50 USDT, access to two trading bots and one APT mining bot
  • Solar – 500 USDT, access to four trading bots and one APT mining bot
  • Nebula – 2000 USDT, access to eight trading bots and one APT mining bot
  • Nova – 5000 USDT, access to thirteen trading bots and one APT mining bot
  • Galactic – 10,000 USDT, access to twenty-six trading bots and one APT mining bot

Note that until February 1st, 2025, DAO1 is giving affiliates who purchase a trading bot and APT mining membership a duplicate membership of equal value.

DAO1’s Compensation Plan

DAO1’s compensation plan pays on the sale of trading bot and APT mining access to retail customers and recruited affiliates.

DAO1 Affiliate Ranks

There are twelve affiliate ranks within DAO1’s compensation plan.

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

  1. Starter – recruit two affiliates and generate 15,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  2. Achiever – maintain two personally recruited affiliates and generate 30,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  3. Visionary – recruit four affiliates and generate 60,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  4. Challenger – maintain four personally recruited affiliates and generate 150,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  5. Builder – recruit six affiliates and generate 300,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  6. Leader – maintain six personally recruited affiliates and generate 600,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  7. Mentor – recruit eight affiliates and generate 1,500,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  8. Elite – maintain eight personally recruited affiliates and generate 3,000,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  9. Legend – recruit ten affiliates and generate 6,000,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  10. Ambassador – maintain ten personally recruited affiliates and generate 15,000,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  11. Royal Ambassador – recruit twelve affiliates and generate 30,000,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume
  12. Royal Crown Ambassador – maintain twelve personally recruited affiliates and generate 60,000,000 USDT in downline trading bot and APT mining access fee volume

Referral Commissions

DAO1 pays referral commissions 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.

DAO1 caps unilevel team levels at nine.

Referral commissions are paid as a percentage of trading bot and APT mining access across these nine levels as follows:

  • level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 20%
  • level 2 – 7%
  • levels 3 to 5 – 3%
  • levels 6 and 7 – 2%
  • levels 8 and 9 – 1%

Rank Pools

DAO1 takes 10% of company-wide fee volume and places it into smaller rank-specific pools:

  • Starter ranked affiliates receive a share in a 20% pool
  • Achiever ranked affiliates receive a share in a 10% pool
  • Visionary ranked affiliates receive a share in a 10% pool
  • Challenger ranked affiliates receive a share in a 10% pool
  • Builder ranked affiliates receive a share in a 7.5% pool
  • Leader ranked affiliates receive a share in a 7.5% pool
  • Mentor ranked affiliates receive a share in a 7.5% pool
  • Elite ranked affiliates receive a share in a 7.5% pool
  • Legend ranked affiliates receive a share in a 5% pool
  • Ambassador ranked affiliates receive a share in a 5% pool
  • Royal Ambassador ranked affiliates receive a share in a 5% pool
  • Royal Crown Ambassador ranked affiliates receive a share in a 5% pool

Rank Pools are distributed monthly to all qualifying affiliates.

It should be noted that until February 1st 2025, DAO1 is selling shares in the Starter rank pool:

  • buy a 2000 USDT Nebula membership or sell 5000 USDT in trading bot and APT mining access and receive two Starter Rank Pool shares
  • buy a 5000 USDT Nova membership or sell 12,000 USDT in trading bot and APT mining access and receive five Starter Rank Pool shares
  • buy a 10,000 USDT Galactic membership or sell 25,000 USDT in trading bot and APT mining access and receive eleven Starter Rank Pool shares

Bought Starter Rank Pool shares must be requalified for every six months by meeting the 5000, 12,000 or 25,000 USDT trading bot and APT mining access fee requirement.

ROI Matching Bonus (?)

DAO1’s compensation documentation states affiliates can “earn passively on the trades of [their] downline”.

This isn’t clarified in the documentation but, specific percentages and downline levels aside, is otherwise self-explanatory.

Joining DAO1

DAO1 affiliate membership is 9 USDT a month.

DAO1 Conclusion

The first glaring red flag with DAO1 is it blocking visitors from the US:

To be clear, nothing DAO1 offers is outright illegal in the US. Passive returns through trading bots and crypto mining is legal, provided the offering company registers with the SEC and/or CFTC (depending on what is being offered).

The SEC and CFTC are among the most active regulators in the world. There’s a high probability DAO1’s filed financial reports would attract attention if the company isn’t doing what it claims to be.

Also note that audited financial reports filed with regulators, a legal requirement in any jurisdiction, is the only way consumers can verify DAO1 does what it claims.

Rather than operating legally, DAO1 commits both securities and commodities fraud. This lends itself to DAO1 targeting consumers in countries with less active regulators.

As it stands, the only verifiable source of revenue entering DAO1 is sourced from retail and affiliate investors. The use of these funds to pay ROI withdrawals would make DAO1 a Ponzi scheme.

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

This will starve DAO1 of ROI revenue, eventually prompting a collapse.

Of particular concern for consumer should be DAO1’s “limited liability” policy:

DAO1.ai is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including lost profits.

DAO1 has a few levers to pull when it inevitably collapses. Trading can be manipulated and APT can be dumped on investors as part of an exit-scam.

Regardless of how DAO1 collapses, the math behind Ponzi schemes guarantees the majority of participants lose money.