CBEX, the crypto scam that ruined thousands of Africans

Edwin is still stunned to have lost more than 14,000 euros in the CBEX scam, a fake cryptocurrency trading platform targeting African investors. It ruins them without a second thought. This Kenyan civil servant, who refuses to give his last name out of shame, learned about CBEX (for CryptoBridge exchange) through a friend, who introduced him to a Telegram chat group where CBEX promotes itself.

He read guarantees of 100% monthly returns, made possible by artificial intelligence, with high bonuses if he sponsored new entrants... all classic features of Ponzi schemes. "I had very big plans," he told AFP. "But I was deceived." The civil servant, with no experience in cryptocurrencies, began investing in CBEX in August 2024. Satisfied with his initial operations, he increased his stake, applying for a bank loan, which he didn't know how to repay.

Because his 2.1 million shillings (about 14,200 euros) were gone. Edwin is one of the many Africans who have fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams, which generated $9.9 billion (8.4 billion euros) in revenue worldwide in 2024, according to the analytics firm Chainalysis. CBEX collapsed abruptly in April, ruining many investors, mainly in Kenya and Nigeria, according to several media reports.

Abby, another Kenyan, will long carry the guilt of having introduced CBEX to 25 relatives. “At the time they emptied our accounts, I had invited friends and family members to invest a lot. And it all disappeared,” he told AFP. “I feel sorry for them and I really want to help them, but I’m broke.” In Nigeria, the collapse of CBEX led to attacks on the company’s affiliated offices, which have since closed.

Adeoye, a Nigerian victim, lost 700,000 naira (about 400 euros). "The offer was attractive," he says in retrospect. "I knew it was a risk, but I thought I had a chance to recover (the money) before anything happened."

CBEX uses a "brandjacking" tactic, adopting an acronym similar to that of the China Beijing Equity Exchange. It was registered in Nigeria in September 2024 under the trading name ST Technologies International Ltd (Smart Treasure/Super Technology). To increase its legitimacy, CBEX falsely claims to have been founded in Singapore in 2015, and ST eight years ago, before expanding into Africa in the last two years.

According to Kenyan cryptocurrency researcher Wycklife Sewe, CBEX, while claiming to grow funds, actually transfers them out of investors' wallets via TRON (a decentralized blockchain network, databases that contain the history of transactions between users).

The money is then routed through several wallets and converted into various cryptocurrencies to make it untraceable, he explained to AFP. "They designed their system with code to make you (...) believe that your money is still there and that you can watch it grow. But it is moved immediately after your deposit," the expert said, adding that CBEX is also running other scams.

CBEX has changed its website domain several times to avoid attracting attention. AFP discovered that at least four different domains have been registered by this entity. A recent investigation by crypto analyst Specter links CBEX's withdrawal wallets to Huione Guarantee, a Cambodia-based platform that facilitates cryptocrime.

In Nigeria, the financial watchdog EFCC announced the arrest of two individuals and the issuance of arrest warrants for eight others. A new law was passed criminalizing Ponzi schemes. On June 10, CBEX, which had previously accused hackers of stealing the missing funds, claimed on its Telegram channel that it had "compensated" the unfortunate investors, then asked them to pay a "verification" fee to eventually recover their money. A common re-fraud tactic.