Nigerians on several social media platforms are now voicing deep frustration and confusion after discovering that CBEX, a digital asset trading platform once thought to be promising, may have swindled investors out of over N1.3 trillion.
The trouble began when users woke up Monday to see their CBEX wallets emptied and all withdrawal functions suddenly halted.
To make matters worse, CBEX locked its Telegram support channels and began offering strange “verification” options, asking investors to pay $100 or $200 in return for limited withdrawals of $1,000 or $2,000 respectively.
Taiwo Owolabi, a cryptocurrency analyst, spoke during a live discussion hosted by “Trending X” on social media platform X.
He noted that large amounts of user funds had been traced to a TRX (Tron) wallet address, amounting to roughly $847 million in USDT (Tether) so far — a figure that could still grow.
According to Owolabi, CBEX was never a licensed platform and the website was deliberately made to look like a legitimate one, ByBit, to earn people’s trust.
“They designed the weak website to convince people in the future that it was a security breach that affected them… All the AI trading is fake. When it’s time for withdrawal, they will send you another person’s money,” Owolabi explained. He went on to describe the scheme as a typical “rob Peter to pay Paul” setup, where old investors are paid with the money of new ones until the system eventually collapses.
CBEX had promised investors a staggering 100% return on investment within 30 days — an offer now viewed by many as too good to be true. Its flashy website and daily fake trading results gave users the illusion of growing profits. However, those numbers never represented real money. Most users were unknowingly watching empty balances displayed as gains.
With questions now mounting over the legitimacy of CBEX, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stepped forward. In a recent statement, the commission warned that any online trading platform operating without registration is breaking the law under the new Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025. The law was signed by President Bola Tinubu and grants the SEC the authority to regulate digital asset exchanges and similar businesses.
“By virtue of this Act, it is an offence in Nigeria for any entity that is not registered by the commission to carry out the business of online foreign exchange trading platforms or related services,” the commission stated.
Dr. Emomotimi Agama, Director General of the SEC, noted that the new legislation allows the commission to better protect investors and make the market more reliable. “The ISA 2025 has given the commission the legal backing to provide clarity, ensure investor protection, and enhance market confidence,” he said.
