LAGOS – Nigerians expressed outrage online after the digital trading platform CBEX reportedly crashed. Users claim the platform disappeared with over N1.3 trillion belonging to investors.
They operated without registration from Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Investors reported their digital wallets were suddenly emptied before the platform became inaccessible.
Platform Halts Operations
Following the apparent crash, CBEX blocked its Telegram communication channels. The platform also stopped processing withdrawals. It then offered users “verification” packages requiring payments, such as a $200 fee to supposedly access $2,000 in assets. This triggered widespread condemnation from users demanding answers.
Cryptocurrency analyst Dele Sulaiman estimated the missing funds could total $847 million in USDT. He suggested the CBEX website might have been designed to later claim a security breach caused the losses.
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Experts Question CBEX Trades
Tech commentator Owolabi described how such platforms often operate. He explained on X (formerly Twitter) that daily trading activities shown to users might be fake. “What you see are just numbers,” he wrote, suggesting CBEX used funds from new investors to pay earlier ones seeking withdrawals. He believes funds were moved through different crypto wallets (TRX, USDT, ETH) rather than being held securely for individual users.
Many affected Nigerians vented frustration online. Some warned others about investment schemes promising unusually high returns. This incident follows recent warnings from the SEC urging caution with unregistered platforms like CBEX. Nigeria’s new Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 now criminalizes operating such platforms without SEC registration.
Abdullah Korede
