1000’s of Nigerians have misplaced hundreds of thousands to a fraudulent digital asset buying and selling platform, CBEX, which operated as a Ponzi scheme.
Early studies from native media retailers positioned whole investor losses at ₦1.3 trillion (roughly $800 million), with the funds allegedly sitting in a Tron pockets believed to be related to CBEX.
Nonetheless, CryptoSlate’s evaluation suggests the true determine could also be considerably decrease because the tackle belongs to Binance’s scorching pockets, contradicting hypothesis on Nigerian social media.
Unbiased crypto analyst Specter supplied a extra conservative estimate, putting the whole loss nearer to $12 million.
CBEX Ponzi rip-off
CBEX, falsely branded as “China Beijing Fairness Alternate,” gained recognition in Nigeria by presenting itself as a legit worldwide buying and selling agency. In actuality, the platform had no affiliation with the official Chinese language entity bearing the identical title.
As an alternative, CBEX adopted a traditional Ponzi mannequin of promising excessive earnings, requiring referrals, and locking person funds. The agency lured buyers by selling an AI-driven buying and selling technique that may ship a 100% return on funding inside 30 days.
The fraudulent platform had additionally gained credibility by way of promotional appearances on state-owned media retailers the place it had been deviously described as a “poverty alleviation” scheme.
This drew in a number of buyers who have been inspired to usher in extra folks earlier than they may entry their returns. Nonetheless, the withdrawals have been topic to prolonged lock-in durations, and by April 2025, person accounts have been frozen with out warning.
The sudden halt on withdrawals triggered widespread backlash as offended customers stormed CBEX places of work in Ibadan and Lagos. Others took to social media to share tales of misplaced financial savings, some within the tens of 1000’s of {dollars}.
Rip-off connections lengthen past borders
CBEX’s collapse seems to be a part of a broader community of associated scams.
Crypto analyst Specter linked CBEX to different Ponzi schemes like LWEX and PCEX, pointing to cloned web sites and comparable transaction patterns. LWEX, as an example, focused customers in Slovakia and Hungary earlier than shutting down earlier this month.
Specter’s investigations additional revealed that wallets related to CBEX have been linked to Huione Pay, a fee and alternate system working in Southeast Asia.
Notably, blockchain forensics agency Elliptic has flagged Huione as one of many largest hubs for illicit monetary exercise, reportedly processing over $24 billion in suspect transactions. The platform has been linked to pig butchering scams and human trafficking instruments.
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