Tokenza Review: AI trading bot ruse MLM crypto Ponzi
Tokenza operates in the MLM cryptocurrency niche.
A corporate address isn’t provided but, as per Tokenza’s website, the company is headed up by CEO Yan Calman. Michael Pether is also cited as co-founder and CTO.
Tokenza’s “Michael Pether” is represented by a stolen photo of Brazil-based software developer:
“Yan Calman” appears in Tokenza marketing videos but also doesn’t exist outside of Tokenza’s marketing.
Calman is a prime Boris CEO candidate. The actor playing him speaks English well but can’t quite hide his eastern European accent.
Boris CEO schemes are typically the work of Russian scammers.
Tokenza has two known website domains:
- tokenza.org – privately registered on June 18th, 2023
- tokenza.io – privately registered on September 18th, 2023
Despite only existing since mid 2023, on its website Tokenza falsely represents it has been around since 2020.
Read on for a full review of Tokenza’s MLM opportunity.
Tokenza’s Products
Tokenza has no retailable products or services.
Affiliates are only able to market Tokenza affiliate membership itself.
Tokenza’s Compensation Plan
Tokenza affiliates invest USD equivalents in tether (USDT).
This is done on the promise of advertised passive returns:
- Bronze – invest 50 to 199 USDT and receive 15% a month
- Silver – invest 200 to 799 USDT and receive 18% a month
- Gold – invest 800 to 2499 USDT and receive 21% a month
- Platinum – invest 2500 to 9999 USDT and receive 23% a month
- Diamond – invest 10,000 to 50,000 USDT and receive 25% a month
Tokenza pays advertised returns in its TKZ token for 24 months on all tiers.
The MLM side of Tokenza pays on recruitment of affiliate investors.
Tokenza Affiliate Ranks
There are eight affiliate ranks within Tokenza’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Affiliate – sign up as a Tokenza affiliate
- Partner – sign up as a Tokenza affiliate, recruit two Affiliates or higher and generate 1000 USDT in accumulated weaker binary team side investment
- Manager – have two Partners or higher in your downline and generate 12,000 USDT in accumulated weaker binary team side investment
- Leader – have one Partner and two Managers or higher in your downline and generate 35,000 USDT in accumulated weaker binary team side investment
- Director – have two Managers and one Leader or higher in your downline an generate 95,000 USDT in accumulated weaker binary team side investment
- President – have two Leaders and two Directors or higher in your downline and two generate 300,000 USDT in accumulated weaker binary team side investment
- Gold President – have three Directors and one President or higher in your downline and generate 1,500,000 USDT in accumulated weaker binary team side investment
- Diamond President – have five Presidents or higher in your downline and generate 25,000,000 USDT in accumulated weaker binary team side investment
For information on the binary team, refer to “Residual Commissions” below.
Referral Commissions
Tokenza pays a referral commission on USDT invested by personally recruited affiliates.
Referral commission rates are determined by how much a Tokenza affiliate invests:
- Bronzer and Silver tier affiliates receive a 10% referral commission rate
- Gold and Platinum tier affiliates receive an 11% referral commission rate
- Diamond tier investors affiliates receive a 12% referral commission rate
Residual Commissions
Tokenza 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 Tokenza tallies up new investment volume on both sides of the binary team.
Residual commissions are paid as a percentage of invested tether on the weaker binary team side.
- Bronze tier affiliates receive an 8% residual commission rate, capped at 300 USDT a week
- Silver tier affiliates receive a 10% residual commission rate, capped at 1000 USDT a week
- Gold tier affiliates receive an 11% residual commission rate, capped at 2500 USDT a week
- Platinum tier affiliates receive a 12% residual commission rate, capped at 7500 USDT a week
- Diamond tier affiliates receive a 15% residual commission rate, capped at 25,000 USDT a week
Once paid out on, investment volume is matched against the stronger binary team side and flushed. Any leftover volume on the stronger binary team side carries over.
Matching Bonus
Tokenza 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.
The Matching Bonus is paid as a percentage match on residual commissions earned across the unilevel team.
How many unilevel team levels the Matching Bonus is paid out on is determined by rank:
- Managers receive a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- Leaders receive a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 10% on level 2
- Directors receive a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
- Presidents receive a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1, 10% on level 2, 5% on level 3 and 3% on level 4
- Gold Presidents and Diamond Presidents receive a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1, 10% on level 2, 5% on level 3 and 3% on levels 4 and 5
Rank Achievement Bonus
Manager and higher ranked Tokenza affiliates receive a one-time Rank Achievement Bonus.
- qualify at Manager and receive an Apple Watch
- qualify at Leader and receive an iPhone
- qualify at Director and receive a “trip to Maldives for two”
- qualify at President and receive a Rolex watch
- qualify at Gold President and receive a Porsche 911
- qualify at Diamond President and receive $1,000,000
Tokenza Conclusion
Tokenza is a simple MLM crypto Ponzi scheme.
Tokenza is built around TKZ token. TKZ is a TRC-20 token. TRC-20 tokens can be created in a few minutes at little to no cost.
The general marketing behind Tokenza is as basic and generic as you can get. For example, Tokenza states its mission is to “create a secure and easy-to-use web3 access platform and open ecosystem.”
This of course has nothing to do with Tokenza’s MLM opportunity.
Tokenza affiliates invest tether on the promise of advertised returns, paid in TKZ. The hope is TKZ goes up in value, allowing earlier Tokenza affiliate investors to cash out subsequently invested funds.
This is your classic Ponzi scheme.
In an attempt to hide its Ponzi scheme, Tokenza has come up with an AI trading bot ruse.
Tokenza fails to provide verifiable evidence of external revenue being used to pay affiliate withdrawals.
The only acceptable verifiable evidence would be audited financial reports periodically filed with regulators.
This isn’t optional, it’s a legal requirement in every country Tokenza solicits investment in.
Traffic to Tokenza’s .ORG website domain is so low that SimilarWeb doesn’t track it. Tracked website to Tokenza’s .IO website is primarily from Russia (88%), Ukraine (4%) and Switzerland (3%).
Tokenza’s securities fraud in Russia has already attracted the attention of local authorities. On January 15th, the Central Bank of Russia issued a Tokenza pyramid fraud warning.
As with all MLM Ponzi schemes, once affiliate recruitment dries up so too will new investment.
This will starve Tokenza 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 July 2024 – Tokenza appears to have collapsed. As at the time of this update:
- Tokenza’s .ORG website is up but links on the site have been disabled
- Tokenza’s .IO website has been pulled
- Tokenza’s official YouTube channel has been deleted
- Tokenza’s official Twitter profile has been deleted
- Tokenza’s official Instagram profile has been deleted
- Tokenza’s official Telegram channel was abandoned on April 25th
Oz wrote:
From September 2017 to November 2018, a similar scam existed with the TKZ token on the Ethereum blockchain on the website tokenza.com:
share-your-photo.com/c7fefb9a86
As of December 9, 2018, the fraud portal tokenza.com was no longer accessible:
share-your-photo.com/fb412ae7f9
web.archive.org/web/20180101000000*/https://www.tokenza.com/
The following fraudsters were named and shown at the time:
– Vincent Fontaine – Founding CEO
– Anne Lemonnier – Chief Operating Officer
– Jérôme Renard – Founding CTO
share-your-photo.com/bdced3a952
– Max Unger – Chief Token Officer
– Azam Shaghaghi – Chief Evangelist Officer
– Aliaksandr Charnou – Bounty Manager
share-your-photo.com/2f3458783d
– Sylvain Morel – Serial Entrepreneur
– Vidal Chriqui – Blockchain Expert
– Remigio Bongulielmi – ICO Advisor, KPMG
share-your-photo.com/08093396c5
– Sebastien Robert – Computer Scientist
– Kevin Codfert – System Engineer
– Julien Derivière – Network Engineer, Ubisoft
share-your-photo.com/b413b7c39d
– Dan Khomenko – ICO Advisor
– Charles Phandinh – Strategy Advisor
share-your-photo.com/fbada3958e
The former Facebook account cryptokenza no longer exists.
The domain tokenza.com was re-registered on August 26, 2022 with data from Hanoi in Vietnam:
share-your-photo.com/7dd1217542
Currently, the website tokenza.com only displays:
share-your-photo.com/5e585db4c1
Anne Lemonnier (COO at Tokenza) from London has a LinkedIn profile.
share-your-photo.com/98fde8e38b
share-your-photo.com/4f8b823435
linkedin.com/in/annelemonnier/
Is Anne Lemonnier involved in so many fraud schemes that she forgot to delete her participation in the Tokenza scam?
Vincent Fontaine (Tokenza Founding CEO) from France also has a LinkedIn profile (without a photo), but of course he doesn’t mention Tokenza.
share-your-photo.com/21eb42b111
linkedin.com/in/vincentfontaine/
The YouTube channel Tokenza Corp has not yet been deleted.
share-your-photo.com/37186cd866
youtube.com/@tokenzacorp3911
In the two short videos from 2017 and 2018, no people were shown or names mentioned and links were provided to tokenza.com.
The advertisement for the Tokenza scam on investitin.com has not yet been deleted either. Only four scammers were mentioned by name.
share-your-photo.com/1d03b09c3a
investitin.com/ico/tokenza-tkz-ico/
Russian was apparently spoken on Tokenza’s Telegram channel:
share-your-photo.com/a3b3fd32bb
t.me/tokenza
The token was discovered by the Ukrainians. This is not their first hype project where they deceived people.
Several people speak Russian. This is Ukraine, not Russia.
Not ruling out Ukrainian scammers… but your proof is what exactly?
At least this Michael (Mikhail) Bezhenar guy is Ukrainian
youtube.com/channel/UCLnKqLMfw72utkyRvot-a_w
Just in case he deletes his channel:
ibb.co/H2sK9d8
Andrei Roenkha here shares “why you have to pay attention to tokenza” and lists several articles that recommend this fff shite
telegra.ph/Tokenza—Kriptovalyuty-bez-granic-bezopasnost-bez-kompromissov-CHestnyj-obzor-12-06
“Michael” likes to brag how successful he is and how often travels (with other people’s money)
ibb.co/TRGcG0p
And on his Telegram channel shows that they are targeting people in former soviet nations (Kyiv first on the list).
ibb.co/pWHbmm4
PS: Oz, when Star says “The token was discovered by the Ukrainians.”
I think he/she means that the token was invented by Ukrainians. Since in Russian both “invented by” and discovered by translates from the say verb.
So it seems that indeed these are seasoned scammers; more Tokenza names:
– Alex Venbrin
– Yuri “Invest” (ffs!)
– Denis Nastavnik (Tokenza Uzbekistan)
– Daniil (no lastname) “The financial samurai”
– Roman, the Top Leader (who said that due to COVID they went full online) XD
ibb.co/Ry3Fm1Y
So, once again, no fullnames but a few faces:
ibb.co/xfvs8tc
A second channel:
youtube.com/@TOKENZARU
and finally buried deeply in a secondary group the team:
– Matt Horn
– Ahmed Kilich
– Petter Dupont
– Luca Rossi
– Emma Muller
– Anna Pathinan
– Juan Garcia
– Martin Fletcher
– Helena Mazur
ibb.co/RyB7YHr
I did come across that Michael Bezhenar channel but didn’t include it as I figured he’s just a cryptobro promoter of scams (go through his YT channel history).
I’m not ruling out Tokenza being a Ukrainian scam but need to see something concrete. I had a suspicion that the actor playing “Yan Calman” is from Ukraine but wasn’t able to 100% confirm so didn’t mention it.
My final addition to comments #1 to 6.
It was claimed here that Tokenza is headquartered in San Francisco.
share-your-photo.com/bc559d56fe
tracxn.com/d/companies/tokenza/__lZ7zPfDPcvR8LZ2rF8tnclzatoK46RAxjUysRhMOZYw
A long list shows the alleged experience of Tokenza Co-Founder & CEO Vincent Fontaine:
share-your-photo.com/7c60ee5476
tracxn.com/a/d/people/pS3ZELgCaZEMxf-Pvn54G9QMbVfqb5bR0MFrAumfZ40/vincentfontaine
First issues with the platform?
ibb.co/Zc6L93F
@ Seba
For me, both websites – tokenza.io and tokenza.org – are accessible without any problems.
Quote from the TERMS OF USE of tokenza.org.
share-your-photo.com/1c26ab2262
docs.google.com/document/d/1MH0u6PBVHWFazFuMmSNLjbcuRCutWaojJJvjw6uljQc/edit?pli=1
Terms & Conditions or Terms of use are completely dispensed with on tokenza.io. Why?
Holy shit they’ve gone full AI retard:
youtube.com/watch?v=tA-PKZuxKLI
That entire video is AI generated. Best example is watch [1:12] to [1:14] and stare at the guy’s mouth.
If Tokenza has disabled withdrawals, it’s over. Soon as I can confirm “global update of the financial module and payment systems” = no withdrawals I’ll call it.
This technology is only going to get better over time. I’m not sure how I’m going to tackle this new wave of AI video scamming. I guess speech patterns and phrasing will be a thing but surely that’ll get better over time too.
In a press release distributed by Tokenza in December 2023, Tallinn in Estonia is mentioned.
share-your-photo.com/e510847d78
finance.yahoo.com/news/tokenza-unveils-game-changing-partner-124500691.html
Outside of Estonians committing fraud, Estonia was only really used for creating shell companies to dupe banks.
Estonian govt brought it on themselves by trying to be crypto bro central a few years ago. They started to crack down on it but undoing the fuckery they allowed takes time.
In addition to tokenza.io and tokenza.org, there is a third website:
tokenza.world (Russian and English).
The domain tokenza.world was registered on October 25, 2023.
share-your-photo.com/fe533f6b22
The YouTube channel of tokenza.world in Russian:
share-your-photo.com/dc50c7f493
youtube.com/@tokenzaworld/videos
Hey, I live (relatively) near Tallinn! 😉 XD 😀
@Melanie
Yes, I can still open those websites. But that text was part of an announcement available on Telegram. Apparently they’re preparing the field for the inevitable “Oh Lord, we have been hacked!, Don’t panic” message.
I double checked their Telegram channel, but no further messages. I hope cryptobros eager to make a name in this tokenza bs post something worth sharing.
There is a now empty Tokenza Telegram group. And it is full (2954 members!) of vietnamese names. So it seems that those were in the first wave of victims.
For what (a couple of examples that) I see, there is still a bunch of “crypto” “companies” working from Estonia. But it is worth noting that they usually claim to have the tech part there, the rest of the operation is from either Cyprus, Malta or the Virgin Islands.
Also Yrimia’s (and Cositorto’s?) Futswap had links with that small Baltic nation. Not to forget that the Zoe Spain brothers had a couple of accounts in Estonian banks.
Review updated to note Tokenza appears to have collapsed.