On April 15, the web was abuzz with information of Ponzi platform CBEX that claimed to double buyers’ cash in 30 days by means of an AI-powered buying and selling bot. CBEX lured buyers with guarantees of nice returns and “no buying and selling expertise or expertise” required.
Nevertheless, it has been an elaborate scheme within the making. CBEX, or “CryptoBridge eXchange,” an alternate platform that reportedly had claims to Chinese language origins, has lengthy been in partnership with crypto buying and selling group Tremendous Expertise (ST) Crew.
Tremendous Expertise Crew had reportedly been working in bodily workplaces in Nigeria—beneath the model, “Sensible Treasure Operation Centre”—together with one not too long ago opened in Ibadan and Lagos. TechCabal couldn’t confirm the extent of its ties to Tremendous Expertise, however CBEX marketed its platform on the know-how that Tremendous Expertise supposedly supplied.
Whereas the CBEX web site continues to be lively on the time of this report, Tremendous Expertise has deleted traces of its web presence, together with its social media platforms.
The promise of buying and selling with AI was false as a result of each CBEX and Tremendous Expertise had no actual product, and within the unlikely case that they did, each firms had no historical past of working a crypto buying and selling enterprise earlier than late 2024.
This was the primary crimson flag from CBEX. Moreover, the platform has used a number of domains because it began working, together with www.cbex9.com, www.cbex39.com, www.cbex38.com, www.cbex18.com, www.cbex1.com, and www.cbex.vip. All of them, besides www.cbex9.com, are actually inactive, possible attributable to studies of unlawful buying and selling actions. At present, CBEX stays operative beneath https://cbex.cx.
“The area [cbex1.com] is tied to the identical CBEX crypto scheme that crashed in Nigeria,” stated Kassy Olisakwe, a senior blockchain developer and founding father of AuroraWeb3. “They’re simply utilizing that area title as a spare, they registered it in early March. They’ve been hopping between a number of domains to keep away from getting blacklisted or caught.”
USDT “bullion” wallets
CBEX operates a extremely elaborate scheme, combining multi-level advertising (MLM) with Ponzi strategies. As soon as a person registers on the platform, it asks them to ask others, referred to as “downlines”. Nevertheless, whether or not they maintain the referral loop spinning or not, customers earn from compounded returns.
A person who “invested” $100 in July 2024—the reported month CBEX turned lively—may have $25,600 of their account by March 2025, an outsized enhance that even some legit fast-growing property, like gold, are unable to match in the identical interval.
When a person creates an account on CBEX, the platform assigns a USDT or Ethereum pockets the place they deposit their funds. Shortly after, the platform strikes the funds from the deposit wallets to intermediate pockets addresses that carry the cash to different accounts.
By means of some digging, TechCabal traced a few of these intermediate wallets to a CBEX-linked web site:
- TLFZVNxiHkfcUQdzN1DJCjHegFQQ368888
- TFo7GZvgdUU5gj41irQeH3NDR5FYWPssFQ
- THn25XKVoBXGSaFfYa6o9pU9Hf4sgtZNZM
- TKadxGap9adtWVztGkRfdvnAgb4JFopXxX
We discovered these addresses on the web site, www.cbex1.com, which, nonetheless lively, comprises USDT transaction information linked to CBEX. To confirm the transaction trails, we used public blockchain explorer instruments like Tronscan and Tokenview, which permit anybody to examine pockets exercise on the blockchain.
TechCabal was unable to confirm if the information confirmed the full reside transactions being processed on the platform.
On the time of this report, $145,266 has been moved from its fundamental accounts—random USDT deposit addresses that CBEX generates for its customers to deposit cash—to its intermediate accounts. About $120,829 has been moved to different accounts.
“These transactions are from an API name they’re making to api.hv2365.com and so they management it. They constructed their backend and database to vanish shortly. As a result of they’re utilizing nameless companies, we are able to’t get the precise info of the those that registered CBEX. Even on plain whiteweb title searches, it comes again as ‘(namecheap)’,” stated Olisakwe.
Additionally it is possible that these quantities had been extra, and the switch information on the web site don’t inform the total story.
TechCabal investigated additional. We traced how the cash flowed instantly when a person deposited cash on the platform.
One among CBEX’s victims, who recognized solely as ‘Earth Laureate’ on Telegram, informed TechCabal that she deposited $2,600 on CBEX on April 2, 2025, solely days earlier than the platform froze withdrawals.
She deposited the sum from a Bybit pockets into the tackle, TC7nTFpBHp9j81521m5n76D6wsD4suUXrH, a TRON (TRC-20) blockchain tackle which holds the USDT stablecoin.
After three hours, the funds had been siphoned to a different tackle, TB6pGj8FiR3XbXbE1th4cVHzASs8xXVL4p, one of many a number of intermediate addresses—possible a level-1 tackle. On the time of this report, this intermediate tackle held no USDT; nonetheless, it had acquired $64,591,317 USDT tokens (the place 1 USDT = $1), and had despatched out the precise quantity of tokens.
Upon additional checks, the level-1 intermediate tackle continuously despatched funds to a Bridgers cross-chain bridge tackle, TPwezUWpEGmFBENNWJHwXHRG1D2NCEEt5s, which held $422,241 USDT tokens on the time of this report.
A bridge cross-chain account is used to maneuver crypto property between two totally different blockchains, like transferring cash from a financial institution in a single nation to a financial institution in one other.
From this bridge account, the funds are additional obfuscated into totally different accounts and blockchains. Smaller quantities like $10,000 and lesser are then transferred into layer-2, layer-3, and layer-4 addresses to cover the origin of the cash. This is named “smurfing.”
TechCabal examined one other case of a CBEX person who managed to withdraw their cash from the platform. The particular person, who requested to not be named, shared that they acquired $2,619.15 in USDT fee from the tackle, TY5yKqWoXRVaHYKNNkY2rf1UjkrLDF6323, on April 1, 2025.
We traced the supply of the funds used to pay the person to the tackle, TASdnkGdYsRxncjmJBUwKym7BDBFvLsyHM, which held $0.883212 USDT on the time of this report. Over $33 million USDT tokens have been moved from this pockets to totally different locations.
Given the dizzying degree of smurfing that was achieved, it’s a little troublesome to pin how a lot Nigerians precisely misplaced to the Ponzi scheme, nonetheless, that is believed to be within the area of thousands and thousands of US {dollars}.
CBEX claims to have began operations way back to 2019, with some sources saying the rip-off developed over time, taking up totally different types with ties to Belize, Canada, and China. Whereas there was no compelling proof for this, it’s possible that the platform acquired funds from a number of areas, making it a multi-national operation—because it allowed customers to handle accounts from wherever on the earth.
CBEX operated with an internet software that might be downloaded as an Android Bundle Package (APK) file, elevating extra issues on why it couldn’t listing its app on legit cell app shops. Nonetheless, given its robust give attention to Nigerian customers and the dearth of proof of its presence elsewhere, it’s doable that this was primarily an area scheme.
Making use of beauty to cross as a “buying and selling” platform
Traditionally, Ponzi schemes attempt to hard-sell lurking buyers on belief. It exhibits potential inventors “proof” of its enterprise, pretend dashboards and enterprise efficiency numbers, and the intense instances, like CBEX, arrange “workplaces.”
Moreover, the Ponzi scheme additionally claims to be an authorized cash companies enterprise (MSB), a obligatory registration by the US Division of Treasury Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community (FinCEN) for companies that take care of foreign money alternate. We discovered this declare to be true, with the enterprise registered beneath the title, CryptoBridge eXchange. It acquired its licence in September 2023.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t make CBEX a legit platform. The MSB licence merely implies that CBEX has self-reported that it conducts cash companies and has filed obligatory paperwork. It’s neither a certificates of legitimacy nor a suggestion by FinCEN. CBEX will want greater than that to confirm its standing as a legit enterprise.
One among its so-called Nigerian firm representatives additionally informed TechCabal that CBEX, by means of Tremendous Expertise, was registered with the Particular Management Unit In opposition to Cash Laundering web site (SCUML), the initiative of the nation’s anti-graft company, Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC) to apprehend cash laundering operators.
Nevertheless, our checks confirmed the organisation, allegedly registered with code, “SC251514550” was not on the SCUML portal. The consultant claimed the EFCC deleted it after the ructions on-line started.
Per Punch, the EFCC has said it would work with US’ INTERPOL to hint CBEX’s operations.
Since CBEX was ousted as a Ponzi scheme, it has uploaded photographs of extra “certifications” from the US’ Colorado authorities on its web site, in determined hopes of creating Nigerians ditch the studies and deposit more cash.
Upon additional checks by TechCabal, the named founder in considered one of its certificates, Tristan Soreau, didn’t return any vital proof of CBEX’s possession. This implies the platform is operated by a faceless entity, one other traditional Ponzi scheme playbook.
The place Nigerians acquired all of it improper
Whereas the operators of the CBEX platform stay elusive, TechCabal discovered a now-deleted declare on Tremendous Expertise’s platform—CBEX’s companion—that the web site had over 50,000 customers in November 2024, with that quantity prone to have elevated.
Many Nigerians shuffled onto the platform, satisfied by their pals, relations, and acquaintances, that they’ll make cash. A few of them did; others acquired the quick finish of the stick.
Earth Laureate, who deposited $2,600 on April 2, had a stability of $9,247.12 in her account earlier than withdrawals on CBEX had been frozen. She stated she amassed the sum from referring her pals to the platform and was ready for her stability to achieve $10,000 earlier than withdrawing it.
“Idle thoughts is really the satan’s workshop,” she stated. “It was idleness throughout the Eid break that made me be part of CBEX. They informed me about it in September final yr, however I wasn’t eager till I lastly joined in April.”
Her “upline,” the one who invited her to CBEX, invested $22,000 into the Ponzi scheme. Though the particular person declined to talk intimately in regards to the matter, he was devastated.
“I’m in a low place,” he stated in a textual content message. “I simply need to get well my $22K.”
One other particular person claimed he misplaced $81,000 to CBEX, and others stated they misplaced cash they put aside for various functions.
There are extra Nigerians like them who had hoped that CBEX was the dream platform for them to make cash—however all hopes have been dashed. In considered one of CBEX’s engagement teams on Telegram, admins, who acted because the hyperlink between the platform and common buyers have claimed to don’t have any information of CBEX’s companies.
“We by no means noticed any of the executives of ST or CBEX,” stated one of many admins or stated ‘representatives.’ “They knew we simply wished to be completely happy and make cash, so that they at all times informed us to go forward. I’m unsure anyone tried to search out out who these guys had been.”
After days of inactivity, the consultant claimed that CBEX turned responsive on April 16, hinting that the platform says it’s ready for the pockets the place Nigerians made further $100 and $200 deposits to “get well” their cash to turn into lively. Some Telegram channels have regrouped these unwitting buyers, asking them to pay more cash to “confirm their accounts” with CBEX and get their compensation.
On a broader scale, Nigerians who participated within the CBEX Ponzi scheme, believed to be at the very least within the tens of hundreds, fumbled the ball. There have been clear indicators that the platform was not legit.
Crypto buying and selling is a extremely risky enterprise; promising a linear two-times return on funding in 30 days ought to have despatched warning bells. The volatility of the market additionally makes this unpredictable. Moreover, its processes had been shady; CBEX failed to coach buyers about the way it made cash.
On its still-active web site, it supplied a “Futures” tab that enables customers to commerce the BTC/USDT pair to extend their earnings. The characteristic has “Name” and “Put” choices with various percentages of success. With the funds of their wallets, customers can gamble by choosing the pair, betting towards the worth of Bitcoin towards the US greenback.
Primarily, CBEX fronted—and had comparable operations—as a crypto buying and selling platform, with the web site intricately constructed to deceive and fleece its victims. It was well-thought-out and elaborate. But, the last word crimson flag: it was not registered by Nigeria’s Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC).
Because it claims to supply crypto buying and selling companies, it ought to have been registered with the SEC. Nevertheless, it didn’t, sounding much more warning bells.
In a public discover issued by the regulator on April 17, it said that “neither CBEX nor its associates had been granted registration by the Fee at any time to function as a digital property alternate, solicit funding from the general public, or carry out another operate inside the Nigerian capital market.”
The SEC stated it would take “acceptable enforcement motion” towards CBEX, its associates, and promoters.
The chance for schooling
The CBEX case resurfaces a essential concern in regards to the low degree of crypto and FX schooling amongst Nigerians. The nation could also be one of many crypto-native nations within the globe, but that information is concentrated amongst just a few folks.
Nigerians want extra schooling and regulators want extra motion to stop unlawful platforms like CBEX from thriving. Dr. Emomotimi Agama, the SEC Director Common has made the fee’s plans to control the foreign currency trading area identified.
“The regulation of on-line foreign currency trading platforms is conspicuous within the new Investments and Securities Act,” stated Agama. “This has been left unattended for a very long time and numerous Nigerians have suffered nice losses on the again of this not being regulated.”
With its full oversight on crypto exchanges, the fee has referred to as for endurance amongst stakeholders because it rolls out regulatory pointers to implement compliance.
But, for Nigerians, there’s just one lesson: if it appears to be like, smells, walks, and talks like a Ponzi, it’s possible a Ponzi.
