ArbusAI Relaunch Sparks Transparency Concerns, 60% DAO Votes From 12 Wallets

ArbusAI, a decentralized artificial intelligence platform, relaunched its native utility token on May 17, 2025, across the Ethereum and BNB chains. This move was part of a broader restructuring aimed at enhancing the platform's capabilities. However, the relaunch has sparked significant concerns among investors and developers, primarily centered around governance and transparency issues.

Within 48 hours of the relaunch, developers identified several issues with the smart contract's ownership logic. Specifically, the smart contract contained hardcoded admin wallets without time-locked transitions, which could potentially allow for backdoor control of future token minting or fund movement. Community members on GitHub noted inconsistent commit histories tied to DAO decision mechanics, further fueling concerns about the decentralized nature of the platform. In response to these criticisms, the ArbusAI team posted that a full audit was underway, but as of May 18, no formal documents or auditor confirmations had been released.

Investors have also raised transparency concerns around the updated DAO structure. The DAO vote logs released post-relaunch revealed that over 60% of votes came from just 12 wallets, which were pre-funded during the private round. This concentration of voting power has raised fears of centralized influence within the DAO. Additionally, the DAO dashboard lacked clear delegation mechanisms or accountability tracking tools, further complicating the transparency issue. Tokenomics data released in the whitepaper was reportedly altered just two days before the relaunch, with initial claims of a 35% community reserve being edited down to 20% without disclosure. This change affects both staking rewards and AI training fund allocation, sparking community outrage and highlighting the lack of transparency in the project's governance.

The controversy surrounding ArbusAI's relaunch underscores the growing market sensitivity to transparency in decentralized AI platforms. Investors are demanding clearer governance flows, especially in projects claiming AI decision-making autonomy. Concerns also extend to how on-chain AI models are trained and validated by token-holders. Some developers have argued that AI-generated decisions tied to unclear voting systems risk systemic manipulation, while others have stressed the need for community-led model training rather than opaque lab-driven tweaks. Despite ArbusAI's marketing as an open-source, modular AI stack, critics question its verifiability, as neither model weights nor training protocols are available for public audit or fork.

As the Web3 ecosystem moves toward agent-led economies, governance in AI-linked crypto systems is under intense scrutiny. The ArbusAI controversy serves as a reminder that decentralized AI projects now face the same level of scrutiny as decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. Whether ArbusAI will publish a complete audit or restructure its DAO remains uncertain, but the incident highlights the critical importance of transparency and decentralization in the governance of AI-linked crypto systems. The broader implications of this controversy extend beyond ArbusAI, serving as a cautionary tale for other projects in the decentralized AI space. As the market continues to evolve, it is clear that investors and developers alike will demand greater transparency and accountability in the governance of decentralized AI platforms.