On October 2, 2025, Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin, issued a consumer warning about DAO1. The regulator found that DAO1 was offering customers automated trading of crypto assets using various bots, and that it was doing so in Germany without the permission required to provide such services. BaFin explicitly named Apertum Holding Limited as an affiliated company. Under German law and BaFin’s published interpretation, those services are treated as unauthorised in Germany and non-compliant with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation across the bloc.
The German dimension matters more than a licensing warning normally would, for two reasons. The first is the penalty structure. Severe violations of Germany’s Crypto Markets Supervision Act are criminal offences. Less severe violations attract administrative fines. The second is who is doing the selling.
Two Men Named in Texas, Selling in Germany
Promotion of DAO1 and Apertum Foundation in Germany has been reported as spearheaded by two German nationals: Dennis Loos and Dirc Zahlmann. Both names appear in the Texas State Securities Board’s Emergency Cease and Desist Order ENF-25-CDO-1889 of March 2025, alongside Heit and Bruce Innes Wylde Hughes. Zahlmann’s name also appears in the November 2023 Texas order, which court filings record as final and not subject to appeal as it relates to him, because he did not file a timely request for a hearing.
The Texas 2025 order was set aside by agreement in July 2025 and establishes nothing against either man. The 2023 order stands. What BaFin’s warning adds is a separate, later, European finding that the product they are promoting is being sold in Germany without authorisation.
The Marketing Pattern BaFin Described
BaFin’s warning fits a category the regulator has flagged repeatedly. The pattern involves technologically exaggerated promises built around artificial intelligence and automated crypto trading, distribution through webinars and social media rather than regulated channels, and targeting of small investors in German-speaking countries. BaFin had issued a series of warnings about similar online offers through 2025.
The practical consequence for German investors is set out plainly in the warning. Where a provider operates without the necessary permission, contracts may be invalid, and the protections that attach to regulated financial services do not apply.
Where the Money Was Coming From
Traffic data tracked over the same period shows how central Germany became. In August 2025, the largest sources of visits to the DAO1 website were the Dominican Republic at 35 percent, the United States at 18 percent and Germany at 16 percent. By November 2025, weeks after BaFin’s warning, Germany accounted for 62 percent, with the Dominican Republic at 24 percent and the United Kingdom at 8 percent. The operation had become predominantly German at exactly the point the German regulator said it had no permission to operate there.
What the Product Actually Was
BaFin described DAO1 as offering customers automated trading of crypto assets using various bots. The marketing around it leaned on artificial intelligence and automation, which is the pattern the regulator has flagged repeatedly: technologically exaggerated promises, distribution through webinars and social media rather than regulated channels, and targeting of small investors in German-speaking countries.
When DAO1 was wound down in June 2026 and relaunched as APTM DAO, the trading bots were replaced by what the new marketing calls minerbots. The underlying proposition did not change. Guidance on crypto asset offerings makes the same point regulators keep repeating: automation language describes how a product is marketed, not whether returns exist.
Why the German Position Is More Serious Than a Warning
Most licensing warnings carry no direct penalty. Germany is different. Severe violations of the Crypto Markets Supervision Act are criminal offences rather than administrative matters, and less severe violations attract fines. BaFin also recorded that the offering was non-compliant with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation across the bloc, which extends the finding well beyond German borders.
For German investors the practical consequence is set out in the warning itself. Where a provider operates without the necessary permission, contracts may be invalid and the protections attaching to regulated financial services do not apply. There is no compensation scheme behind an unauthorised provider.
Where the German Money Came From
Traffic data tracked over the period shows how completely the operation became German. In August 2025 the largest sources of visits to the DAO1 website were the Dominican Republic at 35 percent, the United States at 18 percent and Germany at 16 percent. By November 2025, weeks after the warning wave reached Germany, the country accounted for 62 percent of all traffic, with the Dominican Republic at 24 percent and the United Kingdom at 8 percent.
That is the opposite of what a consumer warning is supposed to achieve. Australia and New Zealand issued their own warnings in early 2025 and recruitment there fell away. Germany issued one and became the core market.
The men reported to be running that market were not anonymous. Both Loos and Zahlmann had been named four months earlier in a Texas emergency order alleging fraud in connection with the offer of securities, unregistered dealing and materially misleading statements, an order that was later set against the backdrop of the 2023 action covering the same individuals.
Conclusion
Six months after a Texas regulator named them in a fraud order, Dennis Loos and Dirc Zahlmann were selling the same product in Germany, and BaFin said they had no permission to do it. Severe breaches of the German crypto statute are criminal offences, not fines. What happened next is the part worth sitting with. In the weeks after the warning was published, Germany went from supplying 16 percent of DAO1’s traffic to 62 percent. The regulator told German investors to stay away and German investors became the core of the customer base.
