CBEX Crypto Exchange Review: Telegram Lures, False Promises, and a Costly Fallout

In this review, we begin with Edwin, a Kenyan civil servant who shared only his first name out of embarrassment, after first coming across CBEX inside a Telegram channel.

Glossy pitches leaned on a few recurring hooks:

• Guaranteed monthly gains.
• AI-driven trading claims.
• Large referral bonuses.

“I had big dreams, but both the platform and an intermediary misled me, even claiming he could retrieve my funds,” Edwin told AFP.

He started putting in money last August. Early payouts arrived, which pushed him to top up despite having no hands-on experience with cryptocurrency trading.

By his count, he is down about 2.1 million shillings ($16,000), most of it drawn from a bank loan that he now fears he cannot service.

Chainalysis estimates that crypto scams drained roughly $9.9 billion globally last year.

Crypto fraud has shifted from crude one-off tricks to coordinated, multi-channel operations that imitate real financial products and move quickly across platforms.

Fraud in this space is not new on the continent, but as cryptocurrency adoption widens, such schemes have become larger and more sophisticated.

In practice, CBEX followed a familiar pattern: recruitment in private messaging channels, deposits presented as “investments,” balances displayed on a dashboard that appeared to grow, and continued pressure to add more funds. When users attempted to pull money out at scale, withdrawals became difficult or impossible, and the operation then collapsed in April before reappearing quietly in the same online spaces.

The platform unraveled in April, leaving many users — especially in Kenya and Nigeria — financially devastated, according to media reports.

Yet AFP, after viewing posts in private CBEX Telegram groups, confirmed the operation has quietly restarted even as probes continue and regulators warn investors.

– ‘I’m Broke’ –

Abby, another Kenyan participant, is haunted by having introduced 25 relatives and friends to the investment platform.

“They put in a lot, and it vanished,” he told AFP. “I wish I could make them whole, but I am broke.”

In Nigeria, word of the collapse triggered attacks on offices linked to CBEX, which then shut their doors.

Adeoye, a Nigerian user, says he lost N700,000 (about $450).

“The offer looked irresistible,” he said. “I knew it was risky, but I hoped to cash out before the fall.”

Investigators say CBEX engaged in brandjacking, using initials that echoed the China Beijing Equity Exchange to seem legitimate.

CBEX also pointed to credentials to appear legitimate:

Based on the reporting and subsequent warnings, there is no indication that CBEX was licensed as a cryptocurrency exchange by a trusted financial regulator.

Manufactured Trust

To bolster credibility, CBEX said it was founded a decade ago, with the ST team active for eight years. Local reporting indicates it actually launched in Nigeria last July before expanding to Kenya.

“On-chain checks of CBEX wallet addresses show activity for only about a year before the implosion,” Kenyan crypto investigator Wycklife Sewe told AFP.

Sewe said that while posing as an active trading platform, CBEX siphoned assets from client wallets using the Tron network, a decentralized blockchain.

Funds were then funneled through numerous wallets and swapped across cryptocurrencies to mask where the money went.

“They coded dashboards to make you think your balance is growing, but deposits are moved almost immediately,” Sewe said, adding that CBEX was simultaneously running other scams.

To reduce scrutiny, the group used domain tactics that made tracking harder:

• Multiple website domains (AFP identified at least four registrations linked to it).
• Frequent domain changes.
• Obscured ownership.

International Warnings

In April 2024, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, an independent market watchdog, issued a public alert about “CBEX Group.”

Recent analysis by crypto researcher Specter tied CBEX withdrawal wallets to Huione Guarantee, a Cambodia-based darknet marketplace associated with illicit tools for crypto crime.

In May, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) labeled Huione Group a “primary money-laundering concern,” citing over $4 billion in unlawful transactions between August 2021 and January 2025.

After the collapse, Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority warned investors about unregulated platforms, and lawmakers began debating legislation on virtual asset oversight.

Never Again

Nigeria’s EFCC says two suspects have been arrested, with warrants issued for eight more in Nigeria and Kenya. A new Investments and Securities Act explicitly outlaws Ponzi schemes.

Still, these investigations take time and money.

In May, the EFCC said it had retrieved a “reasonable sum” without disclosing the figure, underscoring how hard it is to convert seized cryptocurrency back to national currency.

A Telegram spokesperson told AFP that scam content is removed once found and offending users are banned. AFP observed several CBEX groups now flagged as scams on the platform.

On June 10, after previously blaming hackers, CBEX announced in its Telegram channels that losses had been “compensated.”

Victims were then told to complete a paid “verification” — a classic attempt to re-scam those already harmed.

A basic rule for retail investors is simple: verify licensing and ownership independently, and treat high-pressure sales tactics or unclear withdrawal rules as deal-breakers.

For readers trying to avoid similar traps, the most practical checks are the ones you can do before sending any funds:

• Confirm the platform’s legal entity name, physical address, and where it claims to be based; avoid services that provide only vague or shifting company details.
• Look for an exchange license or registration in an official regulator database for your country or the country where the business is headquartered; do not rely on screenshots, certificates, or marketing claims.
• Check whether the leadership team is publicly identifiable and consistent across documents; treat anonymous operators as a major risk.
• Search for independent reporting and user complaints, paying close attention to patterns involving blocked withdrawals or sudden account “verification” demands.
• Test small deposits and withdrawals first, and stop immediately if withdrawals are delayed, re-routed, or conditioned on additional payments.
• Use basic security hygiene: unique passwords, a password manager, and two-factor authentication; never share recovery phrases or remote-access credentials.
• Avoid borrowing money to invest, and assume that any money sent to an unknown platform may be impossible to recover quickly.

Using a Bitcoin or crypto exchange can be safe in practice, but it is never risk-free. Even legitimate services can face hacks, outages, freezes tied to compliance checks, or sudden restrictions in certain jurisdictions. The safest approach is to use platforms that are transparent about who operates them and what rules they follow, keep only what you need on-exchange for trading, and move longer-term holdings to a wallet you control.

For people who want alternatives, examples of widely used exchanges that operate with regulatory registrations in at least some jurisdictions include:

• Coinbase.
• Kraken.
• Gemini.
• Bitstamp.
• Luno.

If you believe you were scammed, the fastest steps are often administrative rather than technical:

• Report the case to local law enforcement and financial regulators, and keep screenshots, transaction IDs, chat logs, and any emails as evidence.
• Contact your bank or card provider immediately if you used traditional payment rails; ask whether a chargeback, recall, or fraud process is available.
• Notify the crypto exchange or wallet service you used to send funds, in case the receiving addresses are already flagged and can be monitored.
• Seek legal advice on recovery options and cross-border reporting, especially if you invested borrowed funds or large sums.
• Consider blockchain tracing support to map where funds moved; it does not guarantee recovery, but it can support investigations.
• Warn others in the same communities where the platform recruited users, without sharing sensitive personal data.