Relaunch Triggers Buzz but Raises Trust Issues

On May 17, 2025, ArbusAI relaunched its native utility token across Ethereum and BNB chains. The move was part of a broader restructuring of its decentralized artificial intelligence platform.

ArbusAI, a decentralized artificial intelligence platform, has relaunched its native utility token across Ethereum and BNB chains following a broader restructuring of the project. The move, which took place on May 17, 2025, has sparked concern among crypto developers and community members.

ArbusAI is said to power autonomous AI agents governed by a distributed DAO voting system. However, within 48 hours of the relaunch, several developers flagged issues with the smart contract's ownership logic.

Community members in a Telegram channel dedicated to the project stated that the smart contract had several hardcoded admin wallets without time-locked transitions. A GitHub review showed inconsistent commit histories tied to DAO decision mechanics.

"This could potentially allow backdoor control of future token minting or fund movement," one developer warned.

Several community members also tagged CertiK and Hacken in posts on X, formerly Twitter, to conduct an independent audit of the project. The ArbusAI team responded with a post on May 18 stating that a full audit "is underway." No formal documents or confirmations from either auditing firm have yet been released.

Investors also raised concerns over transparency with the updated DAO structure. The DAO vote logs released post-relaunch showed that over 60% of votes were cast by 12 wallets. These wallets were pre-funded during the private round, raising fears of centralized influence.

Additionally, the DAO dashboard showed no clear delegation mechanisms or accountability tracking tools. According to the tokenomics data released in the whitepaper, which was reportedly altered two days before relaunch, 35% of the total token supply was initially allocated for a community reserve fund. However, this percentage was later reduced to 20% without any disclosure.

This change directly affects both the staking rewards and the AI training fund allocation, sparking outrage among community members. Prominent DAO researchers also highlighted that this behavior violates standard decentralized governance norms.

"If you can't trace a vote or challenge it, it's not a DAO—it's just a wrapper," one analyst stated in a recent post.

Despite an initial spike in trading volume following the relaunch, the ArbusAI token dropped 28% within 24 hours. Multiple users also reported encountering issues with staking through the Web3 dashboard, possibly due to backend errors.

The ArbusAI controversy underscores the growing sensitivity among investors towards transparency in decentralized AI platforms. As Web3 moves toward agent-led economies, governance in AI-linked crypto systems is coming under even greater scrutiny.