Thousands of Nigerians have lost millions of a fraudulent digital asset trade platform, CBEX, which operated as a Ponzi schedule.
Early reports from local media sales points placed total investor losses on ₦ 1.3 trillion (around $ 800 million), whereby the funds are said to have been associated with CBEX.
However, CryptoSlate’s Analysis suggests that the actual figure can be considerably lower, because the address belongs to the hot wallet of Binance, with contradiction with speculation on Nigerian social media.
Independent crypto analysts Specter offered a more conservative estimate and placed the total loss closer to $ 12 million.
Cbex Ponzi scam
CBEX, false branded as ‘China Beijing Equity Exchange’, became popular in Nigeria by presenting itself as a legitimate international trading company. In reality, the platform had no ties with the official Chinese entity with the same name.
Instead, CBEX followed a classic Ponzi model of promising high profits, for which references were needed and user funds locked. The company has lured investors by promoting an AI-driven trade strategy that would yield a return of 100% on investments within 30 days.
The fraudulent platform had also been given credibility through promotional performances on media in state possession where the abnormal schedule was described as a “poverty reduction”.
This took various investors who were encouraged to get more people before they had access to their returns. However, the recordings were subject to long -term locking periods and by April 2025 user accounts were frozen without warning.
The sudden stop on recordings caused widespread play when angry users stormed CBEX offices in Ibadan and Lagos. Others went to social media to share stories about lost savings, some in the tens of thousands of dollars.
SCAM connections extend further than the boundaries
The collapse of CBEX seems to be part of a broader network of related scams.
Crypto analysts Specter have linked CBEX to other Ponzi schedules such as Lwex and PCEX, pointing to cloned websites and similar transaction patterns. Lwex, for example, focused on users in Slovakia and Hungary before being closed earlier this month.
The Specter study also showed that portfolios associated with CBEX were connected to Huione Pay, a payment and exchange system that is active in Southeast Asia.
Blockchain forensic company Elliptic in particular has marked Huione as one of the largest hubs for illegal financial activities, they are reportedly processing more than $ 24 billion in suspicious transactions. The platform is linked to pig breaking substances and aids for human trafficking.
