Many Nigerians are upset after losing a lot of money to a digital trading platform called CBEX. The platform crashed on Monday, and investors discovered that all their money had disappeared. Reports say over N1.3 trillion was lost.

CBEX was not officially registered with Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), meaning it was operating illegally. Before the crash, CBEX suddenly blocked its Telegram groups and stopped withdrawals. It even asked people to pay $200 to verify and get back $2,000 or $100 to get back $1,000.

This incident has caused a lot of anger on social media, especially on X (formerly Twitter), where many Nigerians are sharing their painful experiences.

A crypto expert, Taiwo Owolabi, explained that the platform stole about $847 million in USDT and could steal even more. He said the website was made to look weak on purpose so that when the platform crashed, they could blame a fake “security issue.”

Owolabi also explained that when people paid into CBEX, the money was sent to a TRX wallet, quickly changed to USDT and then to Ethereum (ETH). When users logged into their accounts, they only saw fake numbers—not real money. The trading activities and profits shown were fake too. When someone withdrew, they were just paid with another person’s money.

One user on X, Steve Fred, called Nigerians “fantastically stupid” for believing such scams. He asked why people would trust a platform promising 100% returns in just one month.

Another user, Oku, said, “The smaller the profit, the more I trust you.” He warned against any business promising huge profits like 50% to 100% return on investment.

Recently, the SEC warned Nigerians to avoid using trading platforms that are not registered. Under a new law signed by President Bola Tinubu, it is now illegal to run any online forex or trading service in Nigeria without SEC approval. The SEC advises anyone who wants to start such a business to visit their office and register properly to avoid penalties.