Verify a decision

{"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"b1f9c079-6c0a-413d-af95-6ef9a3834b63","kind":"publish","page_slug":"bidao","published_at":"2026-05-31T18:06:21.211Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Bidao","sections":[{"content":"Bidao was conceived in 2018 and officially launched its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on September 6, 2019. The project described itself as a 'chain-agnostic trustless stablecoin and decentralized finance ecosystem' built on Binance Chain, modeled loosely on MakerDAO's DAI architecture. The system proposed three components: BNB as primary collateral, BAI as a USD-pegged stablecoin generated through collateralized debt positions (CDPs), and BID as the governance and staking token. Staking rewards were advertised at 50% APR during the ICO, dropping to 3% APR post-ICO. The ICO ran for a full year, ending September 3, 2020, with a hard cap of approximately $19.5 million (1.95 billion BID tokens at $0.01 each). Community and analysis sources report that approximately $18 million was raised. Chainlink oracles were specified for price feeds. The Token Generation Event (TGE) took place on September 25, 2020. Early coverage by The Cryptonomist in October 2019 described the concept as similar to DAI but deployed on Binance Chain.","heading":"Project Background and ICO","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao ICO Review — Coin Bureau","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinbureau.com/review/bidao-bid/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BiDao, the stablecoin on Binance Chain similar to DAI — The Cryptonomist","type":"news_article","url":"https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2019/10/16/bidao-stablecoin-binance-chain-dai/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao ICO Information — ICO Drops","type":"other","url":"https://icodrops.com/bidao/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao ICO Rating and Details — CoinCheckup","type":"other","url":"https://ico.coincheckup.com/bidao/"}]},{"content":"The publicly named co-founders of Bidao are Bastian Aigner and Long Zhang, with Aigner serving as CEO. Aigner holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Technical University Munich and previously co-founded Crococoding, a website design platform, in 2014. He received Apple WWDC Student Scholarships on three occasions and took second place at Techfest Munich 2018. Zhang studied applied and computational mathematics at Duke University and held a role at the Duke Blockchain Lab. The registered corporate entity is Bidao UG (Haftungsbeschrankt), registered at Amtsgericht Memmingen under HRB 18412, with a stated share capital of EUR 1.00 and a corporate purpose of 'Development of new blockchain technologies and websites.' The current managing director on record is Bastian Aigner, based in Wiedergeltingen, Germany; a former managing director, Roland Betz, is no longer listed. A second entity, Bidao Operating System UG (HRB 19561), is also linked to Aigner with a capital of EUR 1,000. Additional team members cited in 2020 project materials included Brian Condenanza (CTO, described as University of Oxford alumnus), Caroline Kurpiers (CMO, also listed as working at Accenture at the time), and Xiaolong Zhang. Community petitions filed from 2022 onward assert that all team members other than Bastian Aigner have quietly left the project without explanation.","heading":"Team and Corporate Structure","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao UG corporate registration — NorthData","type":"other","url":"https://www.northdata.com/?id=5561123449"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Operating System UG — NorthData","type":"other","url":"https://www.northdata.com/?id=6183461596"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao ICO Review — Coin Bureau (team section)","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinbureau.com/review/bidao-bid/"}]},{"content":"The core allegation against Bidao is the multi-year non-delivery of any functional product after raising an alleged $18 million. As of the time of this writing, the BAI stablecoin, CDP system, and operational staking mechanisms described in the whitepaper have never launched. Community members and petitioners allege that the project's GitHub repositories consist primarily of JavaScript files and forks of existing open-source projects, with no original protocol code. GitHub analysis of the Bidao-Smart-Chain organization shows all repositories with last commits in April–May 2023 and no subsequent activity — a dormancy of over two years. A Medium post published in October 2020, less than a month after the TGE, already described the project as 'an empty box to grab money,' citing a malfunctioning website, a staking feature that did not work, and token distribution that allegedly did not match whitepaper allocations. Subsequent community petitions document a recurring pattern: project announcements of imminent mainnet launch, brief positive price movement, followed by silence. Community petitioners allege the mainnet launch was promised for 2020, then 2021, then 2023, then 2024, then a window of March–June 2025 — none of which materialized. A Change.org petition update cited the launch being 'postponed for the 14th time.' No independent auditor or technical reviewer has published a verified assessment of working Bidao protocol code.","heading":"Non-Delivery of Promised Product","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"BIDAO: long term scam — Crypto Lantern Man (Medium)","type":"community_report","url":"https://medium.com/@lantern_crypto/bidao-long-term-scam-799b314cfa74"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain GitHub organization — Bidao-Smart-Chain","type":"on_chain","url":"https://github.com/Bidao-Smart-Chain"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Stop Bastian Aigner (Scam alert!) — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-accountability"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Bidao smart chain Launch: Postponed for the 14th Time — Change.org update","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-the-truth/u/33516762"}]},{"content":"Multiple community petitions filed on Change.org between 2022 and 2025 allege that CEO Bastian Aigner has been paying himself a salary from ICO proceeds without delivering the promised project. A petition update filed in October 2025 described as 'Request for Investigation into the Bidao Chain ICO' explicitly calls for a German regulatory investigation into the possible misuse of approximately EUR 19 million raised during the ICO. The petitions further allege that community members who raised questions about fund accounting in Bidao's Telegram and Discord channels were banned from those groups. A separate petition document alleged that community moderator 'Mike' (surname not independently verified) banned critical users and 'lied multiple times.' These allegations originate exclusively from community-authored petitions and social media and have not been substantiated by any court filing, regulatory body, or verified on-chain forensic analysis as of the date of this report. No German financial regulator (BaFin) enforcement action related to Bidao has been publicly documented.","heading":"Alleged Misuse of ICO Funds","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Stop Bastian Aigner (Crypto Scam!) — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-crypto-scam-from-bidao-fails-to-deliver-on-its-promises"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Bastian Aigner — Architect of Broken Promises — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/bastian-aigner-the-architect-of-broken-promises-and-lies-scam-in-the-bidao-saga"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Calling for the truth — Stop Bastian Aigner — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/calling-for-the-truth-stop-bastian-aigner-concerns-alert-and-the-bidao-team"}]},{"content":"The BID ERC-20 token (contract address 0x25e1474170c4c0aA64fa98123bdc8dB49D7802fa) reached an all-time high of approximately $0.0483 on November 16, 2021, during the broader DeFi bull market. As of mid-2025 the token trades near $0.000114, representing a decline of approximately 99.76% from the all-time high. The token's total supply is 2.65 billion BID. CoinMarketCap reports 14,540 token holders and lists circulating supply as zero, likely reflecting the absence of exchange liquidity data. Automated contract analysis by Cyberscope classifies the contract as 'likely not a honeypot' with 0% buy and sell taxes and no blacklist functionality — structural indicators of a non-predatory contract — but this does not speak to whether the project's broader commitments were honored. Poloniex, which had listed BID following a trading competition in 2020, delisted BID on August 11, 2023, alongside twelve other low-liquidity assets. The project is no longer listed on any major centralized exchange; Uniswap V2 appears to be the primary remaining venue for trading the original BID token.","heading":"Token Performance and Exchange Delistings","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao (BID) — CoinMarketCap","type":"other","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bidao/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao (BID) ERC-20 Token Tracker — Etherscan","type":"on_chain","url":"https://etherscan.io/token/0x25e1474170c4c0aA64fa98123bdc8dB49D7802fa"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Poloniex delisting announcement — Y2K, SWISE, YFL, CID, BID, FSW and others — August 11, 2023","type":"official","url":"https://support.poloniex.com/hc/en-us/articles/16410020552343-Announcement-about-the-delisting-of-Y2K-SWISE-YFL-CID-BID-FSW-FREE-CORN-RAM-MIR-MIM-JFI-on-August-11-2023"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Contract Analysis — Cyberscope","type":"research","url":"https://www.cyberscope.io/audits/coin-bidao"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao (BID) Price History — CoinGecko","type":"other","url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bidao"}]},{"content":"In March 2023, a new ERC-20 token under the Bidao brand was introduced: Bidao Smart Chain (BISC), contract address 0x4295c8556afee00264c0789dde2ddd2dba71acfe on Ethereum. The BISC token is promoted through bidaochain.com as 'the foundational blockchain tailored to bolster AI services and applications,' with claims of EVM and Solana VM compatibility and positioning as a permissionless base layer for AI agents and AGI. The project website describes three development stages ('Napoleon,' 'Alex the Great,' and 'Caesar'), with the Caesar stage promising mainnet launch — originally projected for 2024 and not delivered as of mid-2025. All Bidao Smart Chain GitHub repositories under the Bidao-Smart-Chain organization show last commits in April–May 2023, with no subsequent development activity. BISC is traded only on Uniswap V3 with an all-time high of $0.000177 reached on August 13, 2025. The website lists no named team members. Community petitioners assert that BISC was introduced while obligations to original BID ICO investors remained completely unaddressed. The corporate entity behind BISC is listed as 'BISC Foundation UG,' based in Berlin, Germany. No formal transition plan, token migration, or compensation mechanism connecting BID holders to BISC has been documented.","heading":"Bidao Smart Chain (BISC) — Pivot and New Token","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain — Official Website","type":"official","url":"https://bidaochain.com/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain (BISC) Token Tracker — Etherscan","type":"on_chain","url":"https://etherscan.io/token/0x4295c8556afee00264c0789dde2ddd2dba71acfe"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain GitHub Organization","type":"other","url":"https://github.com/Bidao-Smart-Chain"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain (BISC) — CoinMarketCap","type":"other","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bidao-smart-chain/"}]},{"content":"No regulatory enforcement action by the U.S. SEC, CFTC, DOJ, or any European financial regulator (including Germany's BaFin) against Bidao, Bidao UG, or Bastian Aigner has been identified through public records searches as of this writing. Community petition authors have called for a German investigation into Bidao UG's use of ICO proceeds, citing the ICO's German corporate registration and the allegation that approximately EUR 19 million was raised; however, no official investigation has been publicly announced. The absence of regulatory action does not constitute a determination of legality. The project's corporate structure — a German UG with EUR 1.00 share capital — offers limited financial recourse to investors in the event of legal action.","heading":"Regulatory and Legal Status","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao UG corporate record — NorthData","type":"other","url":"https://www.northdata.com/?id=5561123449"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Request for Investigation into Bidao Chain ICO (Change.org update)","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-the-truth/u/33549648"}]},{"content":"Third-party automated risk services assign Bidao a mixed structural rating. Isthiscoinascam.com gives the token a CCC rating with an overall Project Safety Score of 54%, noting low team credibility (50%) and minimal social engagement (50%), partially offset by contract mechanics (100%) and holder distribution (100%). Cyberscope's automated analysis classified the contract as 'neutral risk' with a 70% security score and confirmed no honeypot mechanics, no blacklist, and fixed slippage. However, these contract-level scores do not assess whether the project's operators have delivered on their obligations. Multiple Change.org petitions have been filed by alleged investors, with titles including 'Stop Bastian Aigner (Scam alert!),' 'Bastian Aigner: The Architect of Broken Promises and Lies,' and 'Bastian Aigner scammed all ico investors.' The volume and specificity of these petitions — spanning at least 2022 through October 2025 — is notable as a sustained community grievance signal, though all such petitions are Tier 3 sources and reflect the perspective of aggrieved investors rather than adjudicated findings.","heading":"Community Sentiment and Risk Assessment","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"Is Bidao a scam? — isthiscoinascam.com","type":"research","url":"https://isthiscoinascam.com/check/bidao"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Contract Analysis — Cyberscope","type":"research","url":"https://www.cyberscope.io/audits/coin-bidao"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Bastian Aigner scammed all ico investors — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/bastian-aigner-from-bidao-we-would-like-to-hear-from-you-what-did-you-do-with-al-the-money-from-the-investors"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao ICO Review — Coin Bureau","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinbureau.com/review/bidao-bid/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BiDao, the stablecoin on Binance Chain similar to DAI — The Cryptonomist","type":"news_article","url":"https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2019/10/16/bidao-stablecoin-binance-chain-dai/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao guide: differences with the other stablecoins — The Cryptonomist","type":"news_article","url":"https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2019/12/28/bidao-guide-differences-stablecoins/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao (BID) — CoinMarketCap","type":"other","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bidao/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain (BISC) — CoinMarketCap","type":"other","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bidao-smart-chain/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao (BID) ERC-20 Token Tracker — Etherscan","type":"on_chain","url":"https://etherscan.io/token/0x25e1474170c4c0aA64fa98123bdc8dB49D7802fa"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain (BISC) Token Tracker — Etherscan","type":"on_chain","url":"https://etherscan.io/token/0x4295c8556afee00264c0789dde2ddd2dba71acfe"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Poloniex delisting announcement — BID delisted August 11, 2023","type":"official","url":"https://support.poloniex.com/hc/en-us/articles/16410020552343-Announcement-about-the-delisting-of-Y2K-SWISE-YFL-CID-BID-FSW-FREE-CORN-RAM-MIR-MIM-JFI-on-August-11-2023"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao UG corporate record — NorthData","type":"other","url":"https://www.northdata.com/?id=5561123449"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Operating System UG — NorthData","type":"other","url":"https://www.northdata.com/?id=6183461596"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao ICO Information — ICO Drops","type":"other","url":"https://icodrops.com/bidao/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain — Official Website","type":"official","url":"https://bidaochain.com/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Chain GitHub Organization","type":"other","url":"https://github.com/Bidao-Smart-Chain"},{"credibility":3,"name":"BIDAO: long term scam — Medium (Crypto Lantern Man)","type":"community_report","url":"https://medium.com/@lantern_crypto/bidao-long-term-scam-799b314cfa74"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Stop Bastian Aigner (Scam alert!) — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-accountability"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Stop Bastian Aigner! (Scam Alert!!) — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-the-truth"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Stop Bastian Aigner (Crypto Scam!) — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-crypto-scam-from-bidao-fails-to-deliver-on-its-promises"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Bastian Aigner — Architect of Broken Promises — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/bastian-aigner-the-architect-of-broken-promises-and-lies-scam-in-the-bidao-saga"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Petition: Calling for the truth — Stop Bastian Aigner — Change.org","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/calling-for-the-truth-stop-bastian-aigner-concerns-alert-and-the-bidao-team"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Bidao launch postponed for 14th time — Change.org update","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-the-truth/u/33516762"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Broken Promises and Endless Delays — Change.org update","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-the-truth/u/33549648"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao Smart Contract Analysis — Cyberscope","type":"research","url":"https://www.cyberscope.io/audits/coin-bidao"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Is Bidao a scam? — isthiscoinascam.com","type":"research","url":"https://isthiscoinascam.com/check/bidao"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bidao (BID) Price Chart — CoinGecko","type":"other","url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bidao"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Poloniex — Bidao Trading Competition Campaign Information","type":"official","url":"https://support.poloniex.com/hc/en-us/articles/360055975574-Bidao-Trading-Competition-Campaign-Information"}],"summary":"Bidao (BID) is a DeFi project that conducted a year-long ICO from September 2019 to September 2020, raising an alleged ~$18 million to build a collateral-backed stablecoin (BAI) and governance token (BID) on Binance Chain. Despite a hard cap of approximately $19.5 million and the 2020 token listing, the promised stablecoin infrastructure was never delivered; the BID token subsequently lost over 99% of its all-time-high value. The project's operator, Bastian Aigner, later pivoted to launch a separate ERC-20 token called Bidao Smart Chain (BISC) in March 2023, while the original BID token and its obligations to investors remained unfulfilled, prompting multiple community petitions alleging fraud and misuse of ICO funds.","timeline":[{"date":"2018-01-01","event":"Bastian Aigner and Long Zhang found Bidao project; Bidao UG registered in Germany","source":"Coin Bureau review; NorthData corporate record","source_url":"https://coinbureau.com/review/bidao-bid/"},{"date":"2019-03-25","event":"Bidao UG partnership agreement signed (corporate formation date per Amtsgericht Memmingen registration)","source":"NorthData — Bidao UG","source_url":"https://www.northdata.com/?id=5561123449"},{"date":"2019-09-06","event":"Bidao ICO begins; BID tokens offered at $0.01 each; hard cap approximately $19.5 million","source":"ICO Drops; CoinCheckup","source_url":"https://icodrops.com/bidao/"},{"date":"2019-10-16","event":"The Cryptonomist publishes early coverage describing Bidao as a stablecoin similar to DAI on Binance Chain","source":"The Cryptonomist","source_url":"https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2019/10/16/bidao-stablecoin-binance-chain-dai/"},{"date":"2020-09-03","event":"Bidao ICO closes after one year; approximately $18 million reportedly raised","source":"ICO Drops; Coin Bureau","source_url":"https://icodrops.com/bidao/"},{"date":"2020-09-25","event":"Token Generation Event (TGE); BID token listed on exchanges including Poloniex, LBank, and Uniswap V2","source":"ICO Drops; Poloniex blog","source_url":"https://medium.com/poloniex/bidao-is-now-available-on-poloniex-1b7a2a2f6186"},{"date":"2020-10-06","event":"Medium post by 'Crypto Lantern Man' alleges zero product delivered after one year, malfunctioning website and staking, and irregular token distribution","source":"Medium — Crypto Lantern Man","source_url":"https://medium.com/@lantern_crypto/bidao-long-term-scam-799b314cfa74"},{"date":"2021-11-16","event":"BID token reaches all-time high of approximately $0.0483","source":"CoinMarketCap","source_url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bidao/"},{"date":"2022-01-01","event":"BID price collapses through 2022; community petitions on Change.org begin appearing, alleging broken mainnet launch promises","source":"Change.org petitions (multiple); CoinGecko price data","source_url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bidao"},{"date":"2023-03-30","event":"Bidao Smart Chain (BISC) ERC-20 token launched on Ethereum; project pivots to AI-focused L1 blockchain narrative","source":"Etherscan token tracker; CoinMarketCap BISC page","source_url":"https://etherscan.io/token/0x4295c8556afee00264c0789dde2ddd2dba71acfe"},{"date":"2023-05-14","event":"Last observable commit activity in Bidao Smart Chain GitHub organization","source":"GitHub — Bidao-Smart-Chain organization","source_url":"https://github.com/Bidao-Smart-Chain"},{"date":"2023-08-11","event":"Poloniex delists BID token alongside twelve other low-liquidity assets","source":"Poloniex support announcement","source_url":"https://support.poloniex.com/hc/en-us/articles/16410020552343-Announcement-about-the-delisting-of-Y2K-SWISE-YFL-CID-BID-FSW-FREE-CORN-RAM-MIR-MIM-JFI-on-August-11-2023"},{"date":"2025-05-01","event":"Community petitions allege that a March–June 2025 mainnet launch window was again missed; Bidao Smart Chain described as postponed 'for the 14th time'","source":"Change.org — Broken Promises and Endless Delays petition update","source_url":"https://www.change.org/p/stop-bastian-aigner-scam-alert-and-the-bidaochain-team-calling-for-the-truth/u/33549648"},{"date":"2025-10-01","event":"Community petition calls for German regulatory investigation into alleged misuse of approximately EUR 19 million in Bidao ICO proceeds","source":"Change.org petition update — Request for Investigation","source_url":"https://www.change.org/p/calling-for-the-truth-stop-bastian-aigner-concerns-alert-and-the-bidao-team"}]},"v":1}