Amid growing public fascination with blockchain, projects branded with "blockchain" and draped in the banner of public welfare have proliferated across the crypto community. Recently, Beijing Business Daily reporters noted the rising popularity of one such project, the "Stellar Ecosystem AOT Public Welfare & Charity Alliance." It markets itself with blockchain applications, uses "cloud mining rigs" to generate its charity token AOT, and claims all transactions are peer-to-peer (P2P) directed trades. Simultaneously, the "AOT Charity Token" actively encourages user recruitment—both on its mining interface and client app—featuring clear multi-level referral structures. Legal experts point out that recruiting new members ("pulling heads"), organizing hierarchical networks, and implementing multi-tiered compensation are hallmarks of pyramid schemes.
How Reliable Are P2P Directed Trades?
Promotional materials describe a "zero-barrier, zero-cost" cryptocurrency network: users get a mining rig upon registration, daily returns are settled and paid automatically, and the AOT platform claims it never touches user funds or maintains a central pool—phrases clearly aimed at attracting novice investors.
Posing as new investors, Beijing Business Daily reporters inquired about joining. Cao Lei (a pseudonym), who had become a city-level agent, provided an AOT login URL: https://aotchina.appmark.com.cn, along with a generic download link. He claimed the ".com.cn" suffix was rare and that having "China" in the domain signified a nationally approved, top-tier address. However, a data industry professional clarified that "aotchina" is merely a subdomain, not a government-approved national domain, and that the actual company website is www.appmark.com.cn.
According to corporate database TianYanCha, www.appmark.com.cn belongs to Foshan Aichuangshang Technology Co., Ltd., founded on March 8, 2017, with registered capital of RMB 1 million and zero paid-in capital. The legal representative, Mr. Guo, holds 100% equity. Beijing Business Daily repeatedly tried to contact the company to clarify its relationship with the "AOT Public Welfare & Charity" token project, but all calls went unanswered.
Marketing claims state all user transactions happen via P2P directed trades. Another city-level agent explained that "P2P trading" here means a decentralized payment system where cryptocurrency transfers occur directly between users on the platform's "inner market." For instance, after mining AOT tokens, users can post sell orders in the platform's internal "buy order" section. The platform then matches them with buyers. Once matched, buyers transfer funds directly to sellers' accounts, bypassing the platform entirely. The platform only collects a mining fee: 30% per token sold.
But is generating the charity token AOT through "cloud mining rigs" and then trading it peer-to-peer actually reliable? Veteran blockchain expert He Nanye emphasized that an "inner market" is, by definition, self-controlled—the founders have full authority over the cloud mining rigs and transaction mechanics. In such a closed ecosystem, return models are artificially engineered, often promising abnormally high, guaranteed returns with no risk of loss. This fundamentally contradicts the basic financial principle that all assets carry price volatility and investment risk, making such models inherently suspect.
An unnamed industry insider analyzed that such a trading mechanism is highly abnormal and user-unfriendly—unless deliberately designed to restrict early circulation and suppress liquidity. Furthermore, judging by both price and hash rate metrics, while the design might seem attractive on the surface, the entire structure depends entirely on AOT's "floor price." If AOT's price crashes, all projected returns would instantly collapse.
Is Recruiting New Members and Building Downlines Legitimate?
Beijing Business Daily reporters observed that the AOT Charity Token incentivizes user recruitment on both the mining interface and the client app. On the mining side, users earn a 5% reward upon registration if their personal hash rate meets or exceeds that of their direct referral. If their mining rig's hash rate is lower, limited data transmission within the network restricts them to receiving only 50% of their direct referral's hash rate earnings.
Regarding client-side recruitment, Cao Lei shared an internal revenue chart with reporters: - Union Presidents: recruit 5 direct members and mint 130 tokens in 90 days (3 months); - Entrepreneur Ambassadors: recruit 3 Union Presidents and mint 800 tokens in 180 days (6 months); - Regional Ambassadors: recruit 3 Entrepreneur Ambassadors and mint 2,275 tokens in 270 days (9 months); - International Ambassadors: recruit 3 Regional Ambassadors and mint 5,600 tokens in 360 days (12 months). Corresponding monthly dividends reportedly range from at least RMB 200 to over RMB 1 million. Cao Lei added that these are internal platform projections and that dividends would increase further if the token price rises.
"Recruiting members beyond two tiers, especially when money is involved, typically qualifies as a pyramid scheme. This remains a common scam tactic used by many blockchain tokens today," said He Nanye. He explained that such models enable rapid viral growth, allowing scammers to scale quickly—using funds from new entrants to pay earlier participants. Once the scheme reaches a critical size, the perpetrators often disappear with the money. The unnamed insider added that commission structures exceeding two levels generally meet the legal definition of pyramid schemes. While the publicly disclosed reward model appears to rely only on direct referrals, it still carries substantial risk due to multi-tiered incentives tied to recruiting new users (like free mining rigs for referrals) and transaction fee commissions earned by mining rigs.
From a legal perspective, Wang Deyi, a lawyer at Beijing Xunzhen Law Firm, told Beijing Business Daily: "The illegal nature of such transactions is evident. If compensation for upper-tier participants is calculated—directly or indirectly—based on the sales performance of lower tiers, this constitutes a multi-level compensation structure, meeting the definition of a pyramid scheme. Recruiting new members, building hierarchical networks, and implementing such compensation are fundamental hallmarks. As the entity behind this virtual currency lacks legal authorization, related trading activities have no legal validity. Investors face a high risk of fraud and should avoid participating, regardless of exaggerated promotional claims."
Blockchain: Real Innovation or Just a Gimmick?
Using blockchain technology to address pain points in charity is a central pillar of the "AOT Public Welfare & Charity" project's marketing. According to promotional materials, the project claims to use blockchain's traceability, immutability, and data encryption to achieve end-to-end evidence preservation and full lifecycle tracking for charitable activities.
But is this genuine innovation or just a gimmick? Liu Feng, Director of the Blockchain Technology & Application Research Center at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, stated: "Blockchain is inherently characterized by network-wide transparency, data openness, and full-process traceability. Therefore, claims like 'using blockchain for end-to-end evidence preservation in charity' offer little actual innovation."
He Nanye added: "While many areas in public welfare and charity could benefit from blockchain, in practice, many bad actors exploit the 'public welfare' label to commit fraud. Based on current evidence, the AOT Charity Token appears largely gimmicky, offering negligible advancement for real-world blockchain applications in philanthropy." He cautioned investors: any token project involving head-hunting, membership fees, or suspiciously high, guaranteed returns warrants extreme vigilance. Don't let promises of outsized gains blind you to the underlying risks.
Beijing Business Daily attempted to contact the "AOT Charity Token" platform to inquire about risks associated with its recruitment model and the authenticity of its inner-market trading but could not locate any official contact channel. As of press time, the platform was inaccessible, displaying an "active security protection" alert.