CBEX, a digital asset trading platform claiming to offer lucrative returns, is now embroiled in a significant financial scandal in Nigeria's history, leaving numerous investors without their investments. By promising astounding profits within a short period, CBEX enticed users from Nigeria and Kenya amid economic hardships in the region. However, beneath its appealing facade, CBEX was, in reality, a complex Ponzi scheme.
The platform's downfall came abruptly in early April 2025 when withdrawals were disabled, the official Telegram channel was shut down, and users were asked to pay a "verification" fee of $100–$200 to potentially retrieve their funds — a move widely viewed as a final effort to extract more money from victims. Initially committing to a 30% return on investment in a month, many investors now find themselves unable to withdraw their funds, fearing they have lost their money permanently.
According to reports from the BBC and The Nation Online, enraged customers protested at a CBEX office in Ibadan, while others voiced their grievances on social media, sharing stories of locked accounts. The Nation Online highlighted that users' funds vanished almost immediately after being deposited, indicating that investors likely never had actual ownership or access to the digital assets they believed they were trading. The estimated financial impact of the CBEX collapse is over 1.3 trillion Naira (approximately 800 million USD).
The similarities between the CBEX incident and the MMM Ponzi scheme from 2016, which caused significant financial losses in Nigeria, are evident. Despite doubts about CBEX's legitimacy, many still took the risk in hopes of early profits, only to be left with regret and empty pockets.
An investigative report by Specter exposed the inner workings of CBEX, revealing its utilization of the TRON blockchain to maneuver users' funds via a network of wallets and convert them into USDT or USDD before transferring them to prominent exchanges like OKX, Bitget, and HTX. Specter detailed how CBEX created new wallet addresses for individual users, shifting funds among wallets on the TRON chain to bypass transaction fees.
The report also uncovered CBEX's possible ties to a money laundering network known as Huione Pay in Southeast Asia and its use of scam website templates designed by Kehon8, a Telegram coder with a large following. Additionally, the report implicated Nigerian Telegram administrators, notably Victor Aiguosatile Osamwende, in promoting CBEX and allegedly threatening victims post-collapse. The report further linked CBEX to LWEX, another Ponzi scheme focused on targeting Slovakia and Hungary with a nearly identical operating interface.
Furthermore, concerns arose over the potential leakage of user KYC data from CBEX to the darknet, raising significant information security issues.