Passivo (aka Passive Hub), operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

Passivo is known to operate from three primary website domains:

  1. passivo.com – private registration last updated on February 2nd, 2023
  2. passivohub.com – privately registered on July 7th, 2023
  3. passivo.io – private registration last updated July 4th, 2023

Heading up Passivo is CEO Jan Lubberding.

I wasn’t able to put together an MLM history on Lubberding. This is a potential red flag.

A definite red flag is Lubberding appearing to be a German crypto bro hiding out in Dubai:

Instead of acknowledging it’s being run from Dubai, Passivo provides shell company details for Passivo Ltd. on its website.

Passivo Ltd. is purportedly registered in Seychelles, a known tax-haven with no active MLM securities related regulation.

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 Passivo, read on for a full review.

Passivo’s Products

Passivo has no retailable products or services.

Affiliates are only able to market Passivo affiliate membership itself.

Passivo’s Compensation Plan

Passivo affiliates invest $100 or more on the promise of a a weekly passive ROI.

  • invest $100 to $49,999 and receive 0.8% a week
  • invest $50,000 or more and receive 1% a week

Note that while Passivo solicits investment in USD and cryptocurrency, withdrawals are only paid in tether (USDT).

For reference: $1 USD = 1 USDT.

The MLM side of Passivo pays on recruitment of affiliate investors.

Passivo Affiliate Ranks

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

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

  1. Rank 1 – sign up as a Passivo affiliate and convince others to invest $2000
  2. Rank 2 – convince others to invest $5000
  3. Rank 3 – convince others to invest $25,000
  4. Rank 4 – convince others to invest $50,000
  5. Rank 5 – convince others to invest $125,000
  6. Rank 6 – convince others to invest $250,000
  7. Rank 7 – convince others to invest $500,000
  8. Rank 8 – convince others to invest $1,250,000
  9. Rank 9 – convince others to invest $2,500,000
  10. Rank 10 – convince others to invest $5,000,000
  11. Rank 11 – convince others to invest $12,500,000
  12. Rank 12 – convince others to invest $25,000,000

Note that no more than 40% of required downline investment volume is counted from any one recruitment leg.

Referral Commissions

Passivo pays referral commissions on funds invested by personally recruited affiliates:

  • recruit 1 to 3 affiliates and receive 0.2% a week on their invested funds
  • recruit 4 to 7 affiliates and receive 0.4% a week on their invested funds
  • recruit 8 to 9 affiliates and receive 0.6% a week on their invested funds
  • invest 10 or more affiliates and receive 0.8% a week on their invested funds

Note that recruited affiliates must have invested in order to count.

Residual Commissions

Passivo pays a residual commission on total downline investment:

  • recruit 2 to 4 affiliates and receive 0.04% a week on total downline investment
  • recruit 5 to 9 affiliates and receive 0.08% a week on total downline investment
  • recruit 10 to 19 affiliates and receive 0.12% a week on total downline investment
  • recruit 20 or more affiliates and receive 0.16% a week on total downline investment

Pool Bonus

Passivo takes an undisclosed percentage of company-wide investment and places it into eight bonus pools.

Affiliates qualify for a share in the pools by investing and convincing others to invest:

  • Pool 1 – invest $3000 or invest $1000 and convince others to invest $1000
  • Pool 2 – invest $15,000 or invest $5000 and convince others to invest $5000 (must recruit 3 affiliates)
  • Pool 3 – invest $30,000 or invest $7500 and convince others to invest $15,000 (must recruit 5 affiliates)
  • Pool 4 – invest $60,000 or invest $10,000 and convince others to invest $35,000 (must recruit 8 affiliates)
  • Pool 5 – invest $170,000 or invest $20,000 and convince others to invest $95,000 (must recruit 10 affiliates)
  • Pool 6 – invest $350,000 or invest $50,000 and convince others to invest $180,000 (must recruit 13 affiliates)
  • Pool 7 – invest $900,000 or invest $100,000 and convince others to invest $500,000 (must recruit 15 affiliates)
  • Pool 8 – invest $1,800,000 or invest $250,000 and convince others to invest $1,000,000 (must recruit 20 affiliates)

Passivo’s marketing material omits how frequently the Pool Bonus is paid out.

Global Leader Pool

Passivo takes 0.01% of company-wide investment and places it into the Global Leader Pool.

To qualify for a share in the Global Leader Pool, a Passivo affiliate must be earning $3000 a day in residual commissions.

Passivo’s marketing material omits how frequently the Global Leader Pool is paid out.

Rank Achievement Bonus

Passivo rewards affiliates for qualifying at Rank 2 and higher with the following one-time Rank Achievement Bonuses:

  • qualify at Rank 2 and receive $50
  • qualify at Rank 3 and receive $250
  • qualify at Rank 4 and receive $500
  • qualify at Rank 5 and receive 1250
  • qualify at Rank 6 and receive $2500
  • qualify at Rank 7 and receive $5000
  • qualify at Rank 8 and receive $12,500
  • qualify at Rank 9 and receive 25,000
  • qualify at Rank 10 and receive 50,000
  • qualify at Rank 11 and receive $125,000
  • qualify at Rank 12 and receive $250,000

Joining Passivo

Passivo affiliate membership is free.

Full participation in the attached income opportunity requires a minimum $100 investment.

Passivo solicits investment in USD and various cryptocurrencies.

Passivo Conclusion

Passivo represents it generates external revenue via “liquidity providing” and “trading opportunities”.

Liquidity Providing: By providing capital to traders on exchanges, you earn a fixed interest rate, and a portion of the capital is allocated to trading opportunities in top crypto projects, and startups.

Naturally Passivo fails to provide evidence invested funds are in fact provided to “traders on exchanges”, or that it is engaged in “trading opportunities”.

On the regulatory front, as per the Howey Test Passivo’s passive weekly returns constitutes a securities offering.

Passivo additionally fails to provide evidence it has registered its securities offering with financial regulators in any jurisdiction.

This means that, at a minimum, Passivo is committing securities fraud. Securities fraud and Ponzi schemes go hand-in-hand.

One other oddity to note is the appearance of Camhirst 3DCP in one of Passivo’s marketing videos:

Camhirst 3DCP is a non-MLM crypto Ponzi scheme:

Ahmed is another crypto bro hiding out in Dubai. Like Jan Lubberding being the obvious fall-guy for Passivo, Ahmed plays the same role in Camhirst.

It’s possible the same group of scammers are behind both companies.

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

Using new investment to pay affiliate withdrawals would make Passivo a Ponzi scheme.

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

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

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

 

Update 23rd November 2023 – Passivo has collapsed.