“If Mining Race is genuinely one of the world’s largest community mining ecosystems, proving it should be easy.”

Over the years I have investigated hundreds of cryptocurrency schemes, MLM opportunities, and investment platforms.

One thing they almost always have in common is that the marketing is easier to find than the evidence.

That observation stayed with me throughout this investigation into Mining Race, Mining Grid, and ICONX.

At first glance, the opportunity appears impressive. There are mobile apps, international conferences, leadership events, promotional videos, newsletters, media coverage, a showroom in Dubai, and a growing network of promoters operating across multiple countries. Participants are promised access to Bitcoin mining, reward systems, competitions, leadership ranks, and income opportunities built around a rapidly expanding ecosystem.

On the surface, everything looks professional.

That alone doesn’t concern me.

Some of the biggest scams I have investigated looked professional.

The question isn’t whether Mining Race looks legitimate.

The question is whether the claims being made to participants can be independently verified.

Because when you strip away the presentations, the branding, the conferences, and the marketing, the success of the entire business appears to depend on one thing:

Whether the mining operation behind it actually delivers what is being promised.

And that is where this investigation begins.

What Exactly Is Mining Race?

One of the first problems I encountered during this investigation was answering what should have been a simple question:

What exactly is Mining Race?

At first glance, the company presents itself as a Bitcoin mining platform designed to make mining accessible to ordinary people. The marketing focuses heavily on removing the traditional barriers associated with cryptocurrency mining. Participants are told they no longer need to purchase expensive mining equipment, manage hardware, deal with electricity costs, or understand the technical side of running a mining operation.

That sounds straightforward enough.

However, the deeper I dug into the company’s material, the more complex the picture became. Mining Race is not simply selling access to Bitcoin mining. Participants are introduced to Spot Licenses, Mining Cards, Stable Mining, Mining Machines, Mining Credits, Cores, Sprint Races, Block Races, and something called the Mining Grid. Layered on top of that are referral rewards, leadership ranks, team-building incentives, competitions, and a compensation structure that extends well beyond traditional mining.

The company’s own FAQ describes Mining Race as a network of connected participants, known as Racers, operating within the Mining Grid. Users purchase products that allegedly generate Bitcoin through mining activity while simultaneously gaining access to additional rewards and opportunities throughout the ecosystem. The result is a business model that combines elements of Bitcoin mining, gamification, network marketing, and community participation into a single platform.

That distinction matters.

If Mining Race was simply selling mining hardware or leased hash power, the investigation would be relatively straightforward. Instead, participants appear to be entering a much larger ecosystem where mining is only one part of the story. Understanding the relationship between those different moving parts became one of the most important objectives of this investigation.

Mining Grid, Mining Race And ICONX

As I worked through the presentations, newsletters, event material, compensation plans, and marketing videos, I kept encountering the same three names: Mining Grid, Mining Race, and ICONX.

The problem was that nobody seemed particularly interested in explaining where one ended and the other began.

In some documents, Mining Grid appeared to be the mining infrastructure behind the operation. In others, Mining Race was presented as the platform participants joined. Then there was ICONX, which appeared to provide the leadership structure, compensation plan, rankings, events, and broader community framework surrounding the ecosystem.

The three brands are so heavily intertwined that separating them becomes difficult for an outsider attempting to perform due diligence. A new participant could be forgiven for assuming they were all the same company.

That lack of clarity matters because investors should always know exactly who they are doing business with.

Who owns the mining equipment?

Who controls the platform?

Who is responsible for the rewards being distributed?

Who receives the revenue generated from product sales?

And who ultimately carries responsibility if something goes wrong?

Throughout the material I reviewed, I found plenty of references to leadership teams, advisory boards, community leaders, vice presidents, regional directors, conferences, and international expansion. What I found far less frequently were clear explanations of the corporate relationship between the various entities operating under the Mining Grid, Mining Race, and ICONX banners.

One thing became increasingly clear as the investigation progressed.

Mining Race is not simply a Bitcoin mining company.

It is an ecosystem.

The mining products sit at the centre, but wrapped around them is a much larger structure involving leadership ranks, referral incentives, competitions, rewards, training, events, marketing campaigns, and a rapidly growing promoter network.

Understanding that distinction is important because it changes the questions investors should be asking.

The real question is not simply whether Bitcoin is being mined.

The real question is how the entire ecosystem functions, who benefits from it, and whether the various rewards being promoted can be independently linked back to the underlying mining operation.

What Participants Are Being Sold

Once the structure becomes clear, the next question is simple:

What are people actually buying?

Mining Race promotes several products that appear to give participants different levels of access to the ecosystem. The first layer is the Spot License, an annual subscription that determines what a participant can access inside the platform. Higher tiers appear to unlock greater capacity for mining products, cards, devices, and participation within the wider Mining Grid.

Then there are Mining Cards, which are promoted as a way to lease computing power without buying physical mining machines. The company also promotes Stable Mining, described as rented mining power designed to continue until an expected outcome is achieved. That wording immediately caught my attention because Bitcoin mining is not stable by nature. It depends on Bitcoin price, network difficulty, electricity costs, hardware performance, and operational expenses.

Mining Race also promotes Mining Machines, where participants are told they can connect or purchase mining devices through the ecosystem and have them hosted by approved providers. In theory, that sounds similar to traditional hosted mining. In practice, it raises the usual questions: where are the machines, who operates them, what mining pools are used, and can participants independently verify the output?

PDFThe lowest-cost entry point appears to be the Core. According to Company Presentations, a Core costs around $25 and allegedly provides 1 TH/s of Bitcoin mining power for one year. That makes it sound simple and affordable, but the Core is not marketed only as mining power. It also enters participants into the company’s race-based reward system, which becomes one of the most unusual parts of the entire opportunity.

This is where the business model starts moving away from ordinary Bitcoin mining and into something much more layered.

People are not just buying hash power.

They are buying access to a system involving subscriptions, mining products, races, referral rewards, rank qualifications, and network incentives.

The Core Racing System

The part of Mining Race that deserves the most scrutiny is Cores Racing.

In one promotional video, a presenter named Fesal explains that Bitcoin mining can be expensive, complicated, and difficult for ordinary people to access. Mining Race’s solution is the Core, a low-cost product that allegedly gives users 1 TH/s of mining power for a full year for around $25.

That alone would be easy enough to analyse. If a Core represents mining power, then the company should be able to show how much Bitcoin that mining power generates, what costs are deducted, and how the final payout is calculated.

But the sales pitch quickly moves beyond mining.

Each Core is also entered into two competitions: the Sprint Race and the Block Race. The Sprint Race is promoted as a weekly competition with a prize of $20,000 worth of Bitcoin. The Block Race is promoted as a reward paid every time a Bitcoin block is mined, approximately every ten minutes.

The presenter then explains that users can earn extra rewards when people they referred win races. Direct referrals can generate larger rewards, indirect referrals can generate smaller rewards, and users can reportedly unlock rewards across up to 50 levels by activating additional Cores.

That is the point where the model becomes difficult to describe as simple Bitcoin mining.

A legitimate mining product should stand or fall on mining economics. In Mining Race’s case, the Core is marketed not only as mining power, but also as a ticket into a gamified reward system connected to referrals, downlines, and network activity.

The obvious question is not whether the races sound exciting.

The obvious question is how those rewards are funded.

Following The Money

This is where Mining Race starts looking less like a mining platform and more like a network-marketing opportunity built around mining language.

The ICONX compensation material shows that participants can earn through direct referrals, network volume, rank advancement, matching bonuses, and activity generated by people beneath them. The mining products may be the hook, but the compensation plan rewards people for building teams and increasing volume across the network.

That matters because the source of money becomes the central issue.

If rewards are primarily generated from real Bitcoin mining, the company should be able to demonstrate that clearly. There should be mining reports, pool data, hashrate verification, audited financials, production records, facility details, and a transparent explanation of how rewards are calculated.

Instead, much of the material I reviewed focused on how participants can earn more by expanding their network.

The compensation plan includes referral commissions on product purchases, binary-style team volume, rank bonuses, and reward structures tied to downline activity. Higher ranks appear to require larger teams, larger volume, and more activity beneath the participant.

That is not how traditional Bitcoin mining works.

Traditional mining rewards are based on hash power, mining difficulty, pool performance, electricity costs, hardware efficiency, and Bitcoin price. Mining Race adds another layer: a recruitment-driven system where participants can increase income potential by introducing others and building teams.

That does not automatically prove fraud.

But it does change the risk.

The key question becomes simple:

If recruitment slowed down tomorrow, would Mining Race still be able to fund the rewards, races, commissions, rank bonuses, and advertised outcomes from mining revenue alone?

The Promoters Behind The Opportunity

As I dug deeper, I found myself spending less time looking at the company and more time looking at the people promoting it.

That is often where the real story starts.

Mining Race is not spreading through ordinary advertising alone. It is being pushed through a network of presenters, leaders, recruiters, regional directors, vice presidents, social media promoters, webinar hosts, and people already familiar with the crypto-MLM world.

Some of the names I identified in public-facing Mining Race, Mining Grid, and ICONX material include Danyal Islam, Rado Mulej, Hind El Hadaj, Primoz Kotar, Marco Klumb, Mario Kapun, Damir Lisica, Jennifer Vukajc, Dustin Uecker, Viktoria Eibel, Hamza Artur Rassman, Cyril Akintewe Pupillo, Tony Nagy, Omar Zouiten, Michaela Maier, Marion Schmidt, Katinka Ehret, Saeed Alhashmi, Marco Poetsch, Michael Heinrich Resch, Henri Hiekkamies, Abdiwali Moalimuu, David Kostajnsek, and Mareen Steinacker.

Being named here does not automatically mean any of these individuals have committed wrongdoing. However, public promotion creates public accountability. If someone is standing on a stage, hosting a Zoom call, sharing referral links, training a downline, or encouraging others to put money into a business opportunity, then their role deserves scrutiny.

As I continued researching the people behind Mining Race, I began noticing familiar names appearing across previous cryptocurrency, MLM, and passive-income ventures. Several visible promoters associated with Mining Race have also been connected to opportunities that later collapsed, attracted regulatory scrutiny, generated significant investor complaints, or became highly controversial within the industry.

Some examples I identified during this investigation include Martin Karus (VP), who has been associated with Monarch, MProLab, MetaPro, Odecent, TronCase, The Blockchain Era, OneCoin, Questra, Cloud Horizon, XERA, CoinSwap, Crowd1, and HiveBond. Mario Kapun (SVP) has previously been associated with Lyoness. Danyal Islam (VP), Hind El Hadaj, and Omar Zouiten have all been linked to Validus. Katinka Ehret and Mareike Grosse Hackmann have both appeared in connection with Polar Tensor, Orange Cat Energy, and Aurum.

I also identified Frank Heister, previously associated with ELIXOO and ZENIQ; Herbert “Bert Cryptex” Schmitz, linked to Bitharvest, Nexxano, Cryptex, and Bytnex; Arno Balzer, associated with BitClub Network; Ali Saeed Abuzinjal, connected to ZENIQ, Safir, and WEXO; and Rado Mulej, who has also been associated with Safir and ZENIQ.

Previous involvement in a failed, controversial, or heavily criticised opportunity does not prove wrongdoing by itself. However, when the same names repeatedly appear across multiple crypto and MLM ventures over a number of years, I believe it is reasonable for prospective participants to examine those track records carefully before committing their money.

Because while companies can rebrand, relaunch, and reinvent themselves, the people promoting them often remain the same.

The Dubai Credibility Machine

Mining Race also benefits from something I have seen used repeatedly in crypto and MLM promotions: credibility by association.

PDFThe company promotes Dubai events, showroom openings, leadership gatherings, conference appearances, branded presentations, professional photography, and Media Coverage. To a newcomer, this can look impressive. It creates the feeling that the opportunity has already been vetted by serious people.

But a showroom is not proof of mining revenue.

A conference is not proof of profitability.

A press release is not proof of regulatory approval.

Mining Grid and Mining Race have been mentioned across outlets such as Arabian Business, Crypto Reporter, MENAFN, Zawya, TradingView, Finance World, Arab Daily, and other publications. However, many of these articles appear to be press-release style placements or syndicated promotional content rather than independent investigative reporting.

That distinction matters.

A company can buy media exposure. A company can stage an event. A company can publish newsletters. A company can create professional videos. A company can build a polished website and launch an app.

None of that answers the most important question:

Where is the independently verifiable evidence that the mining operation generates enough revenue to support the rewards being promoted?

The Austrian Regulatory Warning

While reviewing the material, I discovered that Mining Race had already attracted the attention of at least one financial regulator.

On 20 March 2026, Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) issued a public warning concerning Miningrid L.L.C. / Mining Race.

According to the regulator, the company did not possess the required authorisation to distribute certain products in Austria. More importantly, the FMA stated that the products being offered were classified as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) under Austrian law.

That is not a blogger’s opinion.

That is not a competitor’s allegation.

That is a statement made by a financial regulator.

The warning does not automatically mean Mining Race is operating illegally in every country where it does business. Nor does it automatically prove fraud.

What it does mean is that at least one regulator looked at the structure being offered and determined it raised concerns significant enough to justify a public warning.

The distinction is important because Mining Race presents itself primarily as a mining ecosystem. The Austrian regulator appears to have viewed the products differently, focusing on the financial characteristics of what participants were purchasing rather than the marketing language surrounding them.

I also found it interesting that the company’s marketing material places significant emphasis on growth, community expansion, leadership development, rewards, races, and network participation, yet I found very little public discussion addressing the substance of the Austrian regulator’s concerns.

For prospective participants, this should not be ignored.

Whenever a financial regulator publishes a warning about a company, investors should stop, read the warning carefully, and understand exactly why it was issued before committing any money.

The Austrian warning may not answer every question about Mining Race.

But it certainly creates a number of new ones.

Where Are The Mining Operations?

This is the question I kept coming back to.

Mining Race presents itself as a serious Bitcoin mining ecosystem. The company talks about mining farms, leased hash power, mining cards, mining machines, hosted equipment, stable mining, mining credits, and rewards generated from mining activity.

But after reviewing a large amount of material, I found plenty of evidence showing promotion and far less evidence showing independently verifiable mining infrastructure.

I found conferences, newsletters, event photographs, Dubai showroom material, mobile apps, sponsored media articles, compensation plans, leadership graphics, and promotional videos.

What I did not find was the type of evidence I would expect from a company presenting itself as a major mining operation.

Where are the mining farms?

Who operates them?

What mining pools are being used?

What is the verified hashrate?

Where are the third-party audits?

Where are the production reports?

Where are the pool statements showing what is being mined and how rewards are being distributed?

A source told me they had repeatedly asked Mining Race representatives where the mining facilities were located and how participants could independently verify the operation. The response they received was that the locations were not disclosed because they were a “business secret.”

That answer does not sit comfortably with me.

If mining is the heart of the business, then the mining should be the easiest part to verify.

Instead, from the material I have reviewed so far, the most visible parts of Mining Race are the events, the promoters, the compensation plan, and the marketing.

The least visible part appears to be the actual mining operation.

The Questions That Remain

After reviewing company presentations, compensation plans, newsletters, event material, promotional videos, regulatory publications, and the backgrounds of many of the individuals promoting Mining Race, I believe the most important questions are also the simplest.

If Mining Race is powered by a large-scale Bitcoin mining operation, where is the independently verifiable evidence of that operation?

If the rewards being promoted are funded primarily through mining, why is the mining infrastructure itself so difficult to verify?

If the business model is sustainable without constant growth, how would the ecosystem perform if recruitment slowed significantly?

And if many of the most visible promoters and leaders have previously appeared in controversial crypto and MLM ventures, what lessons should investors take from those track records?

I am not asking readers to accept my conclusions.

I am asking them to do what every investor should do before committing money to any opportunity.

Look beyond the presentations.

Look beyond the conferences.

Look beyond the leadership titles, testimonials, and marketing material.

Follow the evidence.

Because when all the branding, events, rewards, and promotional noise are stripped away, the success or failure of Mining Race ultimately depends on one thing:

Whether the underlying business is capable of delivering what is being promised.

Disclaimer: How This Investigation Was Conducted

This investigation relies entirely on OSINT — Open Source Intelligence — meaning every claim made here is based on publicly available records, archived web pages, corporate filings, domain data, social media activity, and open blockchain transactions. No private data, hacking, or unlawful access methods were used. OSINT is a powerful and ethical tool for exposing scams without violating privacy laws or overstepping legal boundaries.

About the Author

I’m DANNY DE HEK, a New Zealand–based YouTuber, investigative journalist, and OSINT researcher. I name and shame individuals promoting or marketing fraudulent schemes through my YOUTUBE CHANNEL. Every video I produce exposes the people behind scams, Ponzi schemes, and MLM frauds — holding them accountable in public.

My PODCAST is an extension of that work. It’s distributed across 18 major platforms — including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, and iHeartRadio — so when scammers try to hide, my content follows them everywhere. If you prefer listening to my investigations instead of watching, you’ll find them on every major podcast service.

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