Daxos Capital · DD Teardown · 07/30/26 · confidential
Monad-native crypto card, pre-launch waitlist. Sold as a US Visa card with a "$1M chance to win." Its own Terms say otherwise.
As a company
2.0/10KILL
A landing page, not a company: 4 people, $0 raised, no app, no issuer, unverifiable CEO. Marketing contradicts its own legal docs. Stacks the three hardest regulated businesses (credit, deposits, gambling) with none of the licenses, capital, or team. Sits below Auron's 2.5 deck-level floor on our scale.
Daxos fit
1.5/10KILL
Trips our kill rule twice: headline claims live only on Cero's own site, and the site is contradicted by Cero's own Terms. Exactly the shape we exclude: crowded, regulated, capital-intensive, no edge. Nothing to buy anyway: no round, no valuation, BVI shell with a $100 liability cap.
What it is
A pre-launch waitlist marketed as a US consumer Visa card. The "$1M upside" is a third-party offshore lottery (Megapot: Belize entity, Anjouan license; Cero is "only a marketing affiliate"). A proprietary "Cero Score" (0-1000, from wallet, CEX, bank, and social data; not FICO, no bureau reporting) is meant to unlock a "credit line" with no disclosed lender. Per Cero's own Terms: entity is Cero Global Ltd, BVI; US residents excluded; no cards issued, no credit extended, no custody, no regulated service offered today.
Funding
$0. No round on record (Harmonic, source of record: 0 rounds, no investors, no valuation, 4 headcount). Monad-ecosystem and Dragonfly follows on X are signals, not a raise.
Team
- Markuss Jonans (CEO): LinkedIn deliberately blank; record unverifiable. For a credit company, that is a flag, not a gap.
- Miks Podnieks (co-founder): crypto marketing (Aegis, dyor, Just Eat CRM). No credit or engineering background.
- Alexander Chau (mechanism design): Katana founding team, ex-Polygon. Strongest pedigree; fits a points game, not underwriting.
- Thin and mismatched for regulated consumer credit. No repeat founders, no exits, no named backers.
Traction
- Waitlist only. No iOS or Android app. No press, no disclosed users.
- ~1,376 site visits/mo (~45/day). X: 1,015 followers; one 159K-view launch post against a ~468-view baseline. Marketing spike, not adoption.
- Only named partner is the lottery operator.
Key risks
- Offshore shell: BVI entity, BVI law, $100 total liability cap. No US perimeter to diligence.
- Lottery legality: paid spend + chance + prize = lottery. The bank safe harbor covers savings products, not this. US launch invites sweepstakes-casino enforcement.
- No bank: no issuer or BaaS partner disclosed anywhere. Synapse showed how this ends even when one exists.
- Credit with no capital: a "credit line" from a $0-funded company with no lender named.
- No moat: Chime, Current, Kikoff, Self, Cleo own this ground; the one novel feature is rented.
- Deception gap: the marketing site and the Terms describe two different companies. That pattern is itself the finding.
Bottom line: Kill. Do not take the meeting. Revisit only if a real round closes with a named US issuer, a licensed prize mechanic, and a CEO with a verifiable record. None of those exist today.