Although Gelios Trade has gone to some effort to present an executive team on their website, there’s a big question mark over the legitimacy of the information provided.

Gelios Trade claims to be headed up by William Svensson, supposedly a Norwegian

investor, philanthropist, manager of a hedge fund and a large range of financial services for private individuals.

His hedge fund, Gelios investering front, an asset management group with its headquarter in Lillehammer, Norway, was established in 2001.

Trouble is, outside of Gelios Trade’s website and marketing material, Svensson doesn’t exist.

Gelios Trade’s marketing material is fronted by “Kristian Berg”, who also doesn’t exist outside of the company.

In Gelios Trade marketing videos, Berg can be seen touring what appears to be a rented office space.

Gelios Trade claims the space is in Dublin, Ireland – yet everyone in the video, including Berg, has a distinctive eastern European accent.

Perhaps the most concrete example I can give you that something is up is Berg’s interview with “Thomas”, supposedly Gelios Trade’s “most experienced” trader.

In the footage above, the following exchange plays out:

Berg: Hi again Thomas. Tell me, how old are you?

Thomas: I am thirty-two years old.

Berg: Okay, and how long have you been trading at Gelios?

Thomas: I have been trading at Gelios since 2011.

Through the Wayback Machine, I can confirm that up until late 2018 the “gelios.com” domain was for sale ($3750 USD asking price).

The Gelios Trade website domain registration was last updated in February 2019, which is when the current owners took possession of it.

Gelios Trade as represented on their website didn’t exist up until a few months ago.

And if you scroll up to the quoted text from Gelios Trade’s website at the start of this review, you’ll note the company claims to have been founded i 2001.

Obviously this founding date, the staged “office tour” and executive information provided on Gelios Trade’s website are complete baloney.

Whoever is actually running Gelios Trade doesn’t want you to know who they are.

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.

Gelios Trade’s Products

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

Gelios Trade’s Compensation Plan

Gelios Trade solicits investment on the promise of advertised passive returns.

Investment plans offered by Gelios Trade cover USD, bitcoin and ethereum.

USD Investment Plans

  • invest $100 or more and receive a 110% ROI after 20 days
  • invest $600 or more and receive a 121.9% ROI after 30 days
  • invest $1500 or more and receive a 148.4% ROI after 40 days
  • invest $4000 or more and receive a 176% ROI after 50 days
  • invest $7000 or more and receive a 202% ROI after 60 days
  • invest $12,000 or more and receive a 208% ROI after 60 days
  • invest $21,000 or more and receive a 205.05% ROI after 55 days
  • invest $50,000 or more and receive a 205% ROI after 50 days

Bitcoin Investment Plans

  • invest 0.1 BTC or more and receive a 108% ROI after 10 days
  • invest 0.2 BTC or more and receive a 116.95% ROI after 15 days
  • invest 0.5 BTC or more and receive a 128.6% ROI after 20 days
  • invest 1 BTC or more and receive a 145.25% ROI after 25 days
  • invest 3 BTC or more and receive a 167.8% ROI after 30 days
  • invest 7 BTC or more and receive a 208.4% ROI after 40 days
  • invest 10 BTC or more and receive a 295.25% ROI after 55 days

Ethereum Investment

  • invest 4 ETH or more and receive a 108% ROI after 10 days
  • invest 8 ETH or more and receive a 116.95% ROI after 15 days
  • invest 18 ETH or more and receive a 128.6% ROI after 20 days
  • invest 36 ETH or more and receive a 145.25% ROI after 25 days
  • invest 108 ETH or more and receive a 167.8% ROI after 30 days
  • invest 252 ETH or more and receive a 208.4% ROI after 40 days
  • invest 360 ETH or more and receive a 295.25% ROI after 55 days

Note that daily returns are paid out Monday through Friday.

Referral Commissions

Gelios Trade 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.

Gelios Trade caps payable unilevel team levels at nine.

Referral commissions are paid out as a percentage of funds invested across these four levels as follows:

  • sign up as a Gelios Trade affiliate and receive 5% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) and 3% on level 2
  • generate $5000 in unilevel team investment volume and receive 6% on level 1, 3% on level 2 or 1% on level 3
  • generate $20,000 in unilevel team investment volume and receive 7% on level 1, 3% on level 2, 2% on level 3 and 1% on level 4
  • generate $100,000 in unilevel team investment volume and receive 7% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 2% on level 4 and 1% on level 5
  • personally invest $20,000 and generate $300,000 in unilevel team investment volume and receive 8% on level 1, 5% on level 2, 4% on level 3 and 2% on levels 4 to 6
  • personally invest $70,000 and generate $1,000,000 in unilevel team investment volume and receive 9% on level 1, 6% on level 2, 3% on levels 3 and 4 and 2% on levels 5 to 7
  • personally invest $150,000 and generate $2,000,000 in unilevel team investment volume and receive 10% on level 1, 7% on level 2, 6% on level 3, 2% on levels 4 to 6 and 1% on levels 7 and 8
  • personally invest $300,000 and generate $4,000,000 in unilevel team investment volume and receive 10% on level 1, 8% on level 2, 7% on level 3, 6% on level 4, 4% on levels 5 and 6, 2% on level 7 and 1% on levels 8 and 9

Although not explicitly clarified, I believe investment amounts cover their equivalent in bitcoin and ethereum.

Joining Gelios Trade

Gelios Trade affiliate membership is free, however free affiliates can only earn referral commissions down two levels of recruitment.

Full participation in Gelios Trade’s MLM opportunity requires a minimum $300,000 investment.

Conclusion

Gelios Trade represents it generates external revenue through GeliosSelect, which it refers to as “the best global trading platform.”

GeliosSelect is a fully automated trading and investment service which allows Gelios clients to invest in a wide range of investment and trading strategies directly from their personal account.

The problem is no evidence of trading revenue being generated or used to pay affiliates with is provided.

Instead it’s the same old social media marketing videos with graphs on monitor screens, and actors scribbling on notepads.

In order to operate legally, Gelios Trade needs to register its passive investment opportunity with financial regulators.

Gelios Trade fails to provide evidence it has registered with a financial regulator in any jurisdiction.

This equates to securities fraud, meaning Gelios Trade is operating illegally the world over.

Furthermore Gelios Trade’s business model fails the Ponzi logic test.

If Gelios Trade’s actual owner was able to legitimately generate a consistent 3.55% daily return, why share returns with randoms over the internet?

Keeping in mind Gelios Trade didn’t exist up until February this year, even a modest investment compounded at 3.55% a day over the past six months would have grown into a fortune by now.

Yet here we are.

Further supporting Gelios Trade not doing what they say they are doing is the fact that US investors are banned.

Do you accept clients from the USA?

Unfortunately, our activities do not regulate in the US, so we cannot open accounts for US citizens and residents.

Neither trading or offering passive returns is illegal in the US, provided you register with the SEC.

Widely considered the most stringent jurisdiction for securities regulation in the world, the only reason an MLM company bans participation from the US is if their claims wouldn’t hold up to regulatory scrutiny.

With new investment being the only verifiable source of revenue entering Gelios Trade, it stands to reason the company is operating as a Ponzi scheme.

Executives that don’t exist, dodgy actor marketing videos, trading returns that make no sense… who exactly is Gelios Trade aimed at?

Unfortunately Gelios Trade appears to be the same old story of European scammers targeting gullible Asians.

At the time of publication Alexa pegs Japan as the largest source of traffic to Gelios Trade’s website (59%), followed by Vietnam (7%) and Mexico (6%).

Marketing videos on Gelios Trade’s official YouTube channel reveal the company is also actively targeting China and Vietnam.

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

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

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