{"investigation":{"slug":"superteam","entity_name":"Superteam","trust_score":78,"severity_base":78,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.45,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"Superteam is a community-run talent network and grant accelerator operating as the contributor layer of the Solana ecosystem, founded by Tanmay Bhat and Akshay BD and active across 23+ global chapters. The organization has been flagged for investigation by ZachXBT, though no published, verifiable ZachXBT post or report specifically naming Superteam as a fraudulent entity was located during this investigation; the exact nature and basis of that flag remains unconfirmed. Separately, Superteam Earn — the organization's public freelance bounty and job platform — operates within a segment of the Solana ecosystem that regulators, Google Cloud threat intelligence, and on-chain investigators have identified as systematically targeted by DPRK-linked IT workers using false identities.","sections":[{"content":"Superteam is a decentralized talent network that describes itself as 'the talent layer of Solana.' Founded in 2021 by a group of Solana builders including Kash Dhanda, the organization operates as a 'collective of sovereigns' — a distributed model in which regional chapters maintain operational autonomy under a shared framework rather than a strict DAO governance token structure. Superteam notably operates without a native governance token or on-chain treasury, distinguishing it from many peer organizations in the Web3 space. The organization is primarily supported by the Solana Foundation, with chapters required to submit and defend performance-based budgets. Regional chapters span more than 23 countries as of 2025, including active hubs in India, Nigeria, UK, Germany, UAE, Philippines, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan.","heading":"Organization Overview","sources":[{"url":"https://superteam.fun/","name":"Superteam official website","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://solanacompass.com/projects/superteam","name":"Superteam on Solana: Project Review, Programs, Token, Metrics — Solana Compass","type":"research","credibility":2},{"url":"https://kashdhanda.com/work-description/superteam","name":"Kash Dhanda — Superteam founding member profile","type":"official","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"Superteam's primary funding source is the Solana Foundation, which allocates resources to each regional chapter based on performance metrics including member earnings (Community GDP), event attendance, and social media growth. This creates a structural dependency risk: if the Solana Foundation reduces grants or the broader Solana ecosystem contracts, chapter operations — including full-time staff salaries — could be disrupted. In January 2024, Superteam participated in a joint ₹25 Crore ($3M+) grant program for Indian web3 developers in partnership with CoinDCX and the Solana Foundation, demonstrating the depth of its institutional ties. Superteam offers its own microgrants (up to $10,000) to early-stage builders in emerging markets including India, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. No independent revenue line has been publicly disclosed; the organization does not charge commissions on Superteam Earn transactions, positioning it as a grant-dependent operation.","heading":"Funding and Solana Foundation Dependency","sources":[{"url":"https://www.mariblock.com/superteam-nigeria-inside-solanas-community-led-adoption-strategy-in-nigeria/","name":"SuperteamNG: Inside Solana's adoption strategy in Nigeria — Mariblock","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://thecsruniverse.com/articles/solana-foundation-and-coindcx-introduce-25-crore-grant-program-for-indian-web3-developers","name":"Solana Foundation and CoinDCX Introduce ₹25 Crore Grant Program for Indian Web3 Developers","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://earn.superteam.fun/grants/","name":"Superteam Earn Grants page","type":"official","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Superteam Earn is the flagship product of the organization — an open-source platform (licensed under GNU AGPL v3.0 and hosted publicly on GitHub under SuperteamDAO/earn) that aggregates bounties, grants, and jobs within the Solana ecosystem. The platform uses an escrow system for secure payment delivery and offers Proof-of-Work NFTs as verifiable on-chain credentials for completed work. Bounties are typically valued around $1,500 USDC, with grants covering early-stage project funding. The platform charges zero commission on transactions. Community GDP — the aggregate earnings of members across bounties, grants, hackathon wins, and jobs — has been reported to exceed $1.7 million as of 2025 data. Sponsors posting listings are external Solana ecosystem projects, meaning payout reliability depends partly on sponsor behavior. The FAQ notes that payouts to winning teams go to a single wallet, recommending multi-sig or upfront agreement to prevent internal team disputes — an acknowledged risk at the platform level.","heading":"Superteam Earn Platform","sources":[{"url":"https://github.com/SuperteamDAO/earn","name":"Superteam Earn — GitHub repository (SuperteamDAO/earn)","type":"official","credibility":1},{"url":"https://docs.superteam.fun/the-superteam-handbook/community/faqs/superteam-earn-faq","name":"Superteam Earn FAQ — The Superteam Handbook","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.producthunt.com/products/superteam-earn","name":"Superteam Earn — Product Hunt listing","type":"other","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"Superteam Nigeria is among the largest and best-documented regional chapters. Led by Harrison Obiefule, it operates as a registered company with approximately 40 full-time employees as of 2024, including five regional captains and 30 state ambassadors. It ranked sixth globally among Superteam chapters by Community GDP. A survey of 412 Nigerian members (predominantly aged 18–24) found 80% felt their expectations were met; however, only 19% reported earning money through grants and 20% received meaningful technical support, with networking cited as the primary benefit by 67% of respondents. This data suggests value may be unevenly distributed among chapter members. Superteam India was the original chapter and is credited with establishing Superteam's model for community-led Solana growth. Other notable chapters include UK, Germany, Philippines, and UAE, each maintaining individual Substack newsletters and regional community programs.","heading":"Regional Chapter Operations","sources":[{"url":"https://www.mariblock.com/superteam-nigeria-inside-solanas-community-led-adoption-strategy-in-nigeria/","name":"SuperteamNG: Inside Solana's adoption strategy in Nigeria — Mariblock","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://celestialzenny.medium.com/superteam-nigeria-2025-annual-report-1ce75d8d2ad1","name":"Superteam Nigeria 2025 Annual Report — Medium","type":"community_report","credibility":3}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"As an organization operationally and financially tied to Solana, Superteam's risk profile is partially correlated with that of the broader Solana ecosystem. The collapse of FTX in November 2022 significantly impacted Solana, causing SOL to drop from approximately $36 to as low as $12 and reducing DeFi total value locked from over $10 billion to approximately $200 million. While Superteam itself did not appear to face insolvency or operational shutdown during this period, ecosystem funding pressures from the Solana Foundation would have affected chapter budgets. There is no public evidence Superteam received FTX funds directly. Solana has recovered substantially since 2022, with SOL registering new all-time highs in 2025 metrics reports. The SEC has classified SOL among digital commodities (not securities) in guidance issued in 2026, reducing one regulatory risk vector. Superteam UAE partnered with legal firm NeosLegal for the Solana Foundation Frontier Hackathon 2026, signaling growing attention to regulatory structure in newer markets.","heading":"Solana Ecosystem Risk Exposure","sources":[{"url":"https://protos.com/solanas-close-ties-to-ftx-cause-financial-and-structural-damage/","name":"Solana's close ties to FTX cause financial and structural damage — Protos","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.fintechweekly.com/news/sec-bitcoin-ether-solana-digital-commodities-not-securities-march-2026","name":"SEC Names Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and 13 More Crypto Assets Digital Commodities — FinTech Weekly","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://neoslegal.co/neoslegal-solana-hackathon-partnership/","name":"NeosLegal x Solana Superteam UAE — Frontier Hackathon 2026","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Superteam does not operate a formal on-chain governance mechanism or hold a native token, which removes token-related manipulation risks but also limits on-chain auditability of fund flows. Budget submissions to the Solana Foundation are performance-reviewed, but these documents do not appear to be publicly disclosed in detail. The Superteam Earn platform codebase is open source and publicly auditable on GitHub. Chapter-level reporting is distributed through regional Substack newsletters and monthly recaps, providing moderate operational transparency at the community level. The earnings dashboard (SuperteamDAO/superteam-earnings-dashboard) is also publicly hosted on GitHub, offering aggregate member earnings data. No formal third-party audit of financials or smart contracts has been publicly identified. The absence of a governance token and on-chain treasury means disputes or organizational changes depend on informal or legal agreements between Superteam leadership and the Solana Foundation.","heading":"Governance and Transparency","sources":[{"url":"https://github.com/superteamdao","name":"SuperteamDAO GitHub organization","type":"official","credibility":1},{"url":"https://blog.superteam.fun/p/how-we-built-our-daos-reputation","name":"How We Built Our DAO's Reputation System — Kash Dhanda, Superteam Blog","type":"official","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"No confirmed scams, fraud allegations, regulatory enforcement actions, or security exploits directly involving Superteam or Superteam Earn have been identified through available sources as of May 2026. Web searches for 'Superteam scam,' 'Superteam fraud,' and 'Superteam Earn hack' returned no relevant results implicating the organization. Minor community-level concerns documented include: isolated reports of bounty team payment disputes (a single wallet payout model creating internal split issues), limited grant penetration among chapter members (19% of surveyed Nigerian members earned through grants), and no automatic XP attribution for bounty winners without community invitation. These are platform-level design limitations rather than systemic trust violations. The organization has not been named in any SEC filings, CFTC actions, or court cases identified in this investigation.","heading":"Controversies and Adverse Findings","sources":[{"url":"https://docs.superteam.fun/the-superteam-handbook/community/faqs/superteam-earn-faq","name":"Superteam Earn FAQ — The Superteam Handbook","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.mariblock.com/superteam-nigeria-inside-solanas-community-led-adoption-strategy-in-nigeria/","name":"SuperteamNG: Inside Solana's adoption strategy in Nigeria — Mariblock","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"Kash Dhanda is identified as a founding member of Superteam, joining in September 2021. He describes his role as 'Sherpa at Superteam' on his personal website and has publicly advised multiple Solana ecosystem projects including Jupiter, Streamflow, Ironforge, and Atlantis, as well as the Solana Foundation itself. Harrison Obiefule leads Superteam Nigeria, previously having held marketing roles at Bitget and Cassava Network. Individual chapter leads (referred to as 'Captains') manage regional operations; specific captain identities for most chapters are not prominently documented in Tier 1 or Tier 2 sources reviewed. The Superteam Earn platform was built and is maintained by the SuperteamDAO engineering team, with open-source contributions accepted from the broader community.","heading":"Key Personnel","sources":[{"url":"https://kashdhanda.com/","name":"Kash Dhanda personal website","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.mariblock.com/superteam-nigeria-inside-solanas-community-led-adoption-strategy-in-nigeria/","name":"SuperteamNG: Inside Solana's adoption strategy in Nigeria — Mariblock","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2021","event":"Superteam founded by Tanmay Bhat and Akshay BD as a community DAO to support Solana ecosystem builders, initially focused on India.","source":"Superteam Official Website / Solana Compass","source_url":"https://solanacompass.com/projects/superteam","date_original":"2021-01-01"},{"date":"2022","event":"Superteam Earn launched as a platform aggregating Solana bounties, grants, and freelance job listings; escrow payment system implemented.","source":"Superteam Earn Product Hunt listing","source_url":"https://www.producthunt.com/products/superteam-earn","date_original":"2022-01-01"},{"date":"2024-08-15","event":"ZachXBT publicly alleges that a single entity in Asia (possibly North Korea) employs 21 developers working on 25+ crypto projects, earning $500K/month. DPRK targeting of Solana-adjacent platforms documented.","source":"ZachXBT on X / CoinTelegraph","source_url":"https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:00777747d094b:0-zachxbt-claims-21-north-korea-crypto-devs-are-making-500k-a-month/"},{"date":"2025-02","event":"Social media posts allege fraud and non-payment by projects listed on Superteam Earn, with one post claiming 'the crime that goes on on superteam earn is out of this world.' Superteam-affiliated account defends the platform's role as a neutral marketplace.","source":"X/Twitter — @__BigJo","source_url":"https://x.com/__BigJo/status/1897186206028599307","date_original":"2025-02-01"},{"date":"2025-04-02","event":"Google Cloud Threat Intelligence Group warns that North Korean IT workers are specifically targeting European Solana projects and Solana job boards, expanding from previous US-focused operations.","source":"CoinDesk / Google Cloud Blog","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/04/02/google-warns-solana-projects-that-north-koreans-are-increasingly-targeting-european-projects"},{"date":"2025-06","event":"ZachXBT traces the $680,000 Favrr exploit to DPRK operatives who had posed as legitimate developers; CTO 'Alex Hong' identified as North Korean. DPRK developer infiltration of Solana projects escalates.","source":"ZachXBT / CryptoPotato","source_url":"https://cryptopotato.com/zachxbt-uncovers-3-5m-operation-by-north-korean-fake-devs-inside-crypto-firms/","date_original":"2025-06-01"},{"date":"2026-02-26","event":"ZachXBT publishes investigation into insider trading at Axiom, a Solana trading platform — another Solana-adjacent platform fraud case.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/391423/zachxbt-investigation-into-alleged-employee-insider-trading"},{"date":"2026-04","event":"Drift Protocol on Solana exploited for $285 million in a confirmed DPRK-attributed six-month social engineering operation, the largest Solana hack to date.","source":"Hacker News / TRM Labs / Chainalysis","source_url":"https://thehackernews.com/2026/04/285-million-drift-hack-traced-to-six.html","date_original":"2026-04-01"},{"date":"2026-04-07","event":"ZachXBT alleges ElementalDeFi, a Solana DeFi project, hired a DPRK IT worker for years using a false identity. Stabble, a Solana DEX, urgently warns liquidity providers after a former employee is identified as a North Korean operative who also worked for Elemental.","source":"BanklessTimes / Protos","source_url":"https://www.banklesstimes.com/articles/2026/04/07/zachxbt-solana-defi-app-elementaldefi-hired-dprk-it-worker-for-years/"}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://superteam.fun/","name":"Superteam Official Website","type":"official","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260629173939/https://superteam.fun/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-06-29T17:39:39+00:00"},{"url":"https://solanacompass.com/projects/superteam","name":"Superteam on Solana — Solana Compass","type":"research","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260315104532/https://solanacompass.com/projects/superteam","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-03-15T10:45:32+00:00"},{"url":"https://earn.superteam.fun/","name":"Superteam Earn 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generating $1M monthly — The Block","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260410063840/https://www.theblock.co/post/396847/zachxbt-uncovers-north-korea-linked-it-worker-network-generating-1m-monthly-via-crypto-payment-flows","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-04-10T06:38:40+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.banklesstimes.com/articles/2026/04/07/zachxbt-solana-defi-app-elementaldefi-hired-dprk-it-worker-for-years/","name":"ZachXBT: Solana DeFi App ElementalDeFi Hired DPRK IT Worker for Years — BanklessTimes","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260528034346/https://www.banklesstimes.com/articles/2026/04/07/zachxbt-solana-defi-app-elementaldefi-hired-dprk-it-worker-for-years/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-28T03:43:46+00:00"},{"url":"https://protos.com/solana-dex-stabble-urges-liquidity-exit-after-alleged-dprk-mole-revealed/","name":"Solana DEX Stabble urges liquidity exit after alleged DPRK mole — 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