The office of Crypto Bridge Exchange Smart-Treasures, widely known as CBEX, located at Seliat Bus Stop in the Egbeda-Idimu area of Lagos State, was swarmed on Tuesday by aggrieved investors following the sudden disappearance of their funds from the CBEX trading app.
CBEX was advertised as an artificial intelligence-powered cryptocurrency trading platform that allows users to buy and sell digital assets with promises of “100 per cent returns every month.”
On Tuesday, several videos showed a large crowd of frustrated investors gathered at the CBEX gate, with some standing by the roadside while others attempted to force their way into the compound.
Armed policemen from the Lagos State Police Command were spotted in a white van, apparently deployed to prevent a possible breakdown of law and order.
Sources disclosed that the landlord of the building housing CBEX was taken into custody by the police after protesters attempted to confront him over the scam.
One of the affected investors, Dele Aina, who spoke to PUNCH Metro after the protest, said, “My sister-in-law introduced this CBEX stuff to me just about three weeks ago. I registered, downloaded the app, and did all the verifications. An account was opened for me with $500.
“They said they would trade with 2 per cent of the money daily, and at the end of 45 days or less, I would receive 100 per cent returns. My $500 was supposed to become $1,000.
“People said they had withdrawn from it before. My wife kept pressuring me to do it instead of putting the money in a fixed deposit at the bank.
“But about three days ago, we started hearing strange things. Suddenly, nobody could withdraw anymore. And then they cleared everybody’s money.
“They allegedly moved about N1.3trn into a private wallet. I only believed it was legit because they had physical offices.”
He added, “I went to their office today; it was something else. Police had to come with guns, and the DPO of Idimu had to beg the crowd. They even arrested the facility owner.
“Some people tried to jump the fence. They wanted to loot the place, taking the air conditioners, computers, everything — just like what happened in Ibadan.”
Aina added that CBEX staffers claimed ignorance, insisting that only their boss knew the full details of the operation.
“I don’t even have the money to sue anyone. I know someone who had N9m invested. Some people suffered casualties from hearing that CBEX crashed,” Aina added.
When contacted about claims that the landlord of the building housing CBEX in Lagos had been arrested, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, dismissed the reports.
“No landlord was arrested,” he told our correspondent.
Meanwhile, in a video obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, another visibly distressed victim, identified as Bolaoluwa, broke down in tears as she recounted her ordeal.
She lamented, “I invested $200, but all my friends put in $1,000. I work and hustle for my money in Libya, we even fight over there to get jobs.”
“It was my neighbour who introduced me to the CBEX programme. He showed me his profits, so I believed it was real. Now, all the money I brought back from Libya is gone.”
A similar outrage spilt over to social media, where angry Nigerians shared their stories of being locked out of their accounts on the CBEX platform.
Many posted videos of themselves crying, saying they could no longer withdraw their funds and feared their investments were gone for good.
Tensions reportedly began to rise last Friday when users started noticing that the platform had crashed, locking them out and rendering them unable to access their funds.
The frustration turned into chaos in Oke Ado, Ibadan, where another CBEX office was reportedly attacked and looted on Monday.
A video on Tuesday showed an angry mob allegedly taking away furniture and other valuables from what appears to be the office of CBEX in Ibadan, days after suspecting the platform had folded.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has responded to the CBEX saga by reiterating that under the newly-enacted Investments and Securities Act 2025, it is now illegal to operate any digital asset exchange or online forex trading platform in Nigeria without formal registration.
In a statement released on Sunday, the SEC emphasised that by the new law, “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.”
This scandal has revived memories of the notorious MMM scheme, which collapsed in 2016 after promising investors 30 per cent returns in 30 days.
At its peak, MMM claimed to have over three million members before freezing transactions and leaving many devastated.
