The Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) trading platform, accused of scamming Nigerians, has resumed operations and introduced new withdrawal options to restore investor confidence.
Despite ongoing investigations into an alleged N1.3 trillion digital trading fraud affecting over 600,000 Nigerians, CBEX is allowing new users to register, trade, and withdraw profits.
According to CBEX sources, an insurance verification process and external audit of CBEX’s financial records are underway to determine the actual amount lost.
The sources claimed that old investors will be able to withdraw funds starting June 25, 2025, after the audit’s expected completion.
Meanwhile, new users can currently register, fund accounts, and withdraw profits without restrictions, as these accounts are not subject to the ongoing audit.
The platform’s promoters also refute allegations of fraud, claiming funds remain intact and the audit aims to reconcile discrepancies in old accounts.
They attribute the loss to an AI trading incident and assert that the platform is insured.
Meanwhile new investors can participate in a referral program, earning bonuses that can be withdrawn immediately.
One of the sources said, “People can now withdraw from the CBEX platform. The withdrawal option has been activated. Let me explain the withdrawal. The old account was wiped; you can’t take out funds from it yet. On the 14th of this month, the Artificial Intelligence on the platform traded 100 per cent, lost its trade, and wiped people’s money out.
“But now, the promoters are saying that the platform and the CBEX application are insured, with verification of funds ongoing by the insurance company. Now, previous investors who have $1,000 as their capital would have to inject $100, and the former account balance would be restored, while persons with over $1,000 would have to put in $200 to bring back the account balance. And we have started seeing people put in these funds to get back their money, and are using it to trade now, as I talk to you.
“According to the latest information shared, previous investors can only trade but not withdraw because the United Kingdom government is carrying out an audit on their financial account, which will be completed between 30 to 60 days. Hence, the reason why previous investors cannot withdraw their funds yet.
“But from June 25th, you can now withdraw up to 50 per cent of your capital from the old account. For example, if you invested $1,000 and you could only withdraw $200 before, from the 25th, you can withdraw $400 from the remaining $800 capital, then from August 25th, you can withdraw the remaining $400 capital. But if you don’t do the verification, it won’t reflect in your account.”
Another source said: “Currently, fresh investors can register a new account, fund it, and withdraw their profit. The new accounts are not under audit. It is the old account that is under review.
“What they are auditing is because the Federal Government said they scammed Nigerians of N1.2tn, and they are insisting that the amount is not up to half of the publicised amount. They are claiming only N126bn was lost, and that is the reason for the audit. But new accounts can now start investing and get their money. There is also a bonus for referrals that you can withdraw immediately, and this is ongoing currently.
“They just want to prove to Nigerians that they are not scammers. It was just because AI traded 100 per cent of the funds that the money was lost. There is a new group where people can say whatever they want to say; they also drop signals for trading three times a day, but it is no longer automated; you have to do it by yourself. They would give you a code; you just have to put it in your account and trade. If you notice any abnormality, you can cancel it. That was how it was before AI started doing the trading,” the source stated.
When questioned on why the audit was not conducted by the Nigerian government, a source explained, “The firm is registered in the United Kingdom, not in Nigeria. They merely extended their operations here. In fact, they also have branches in Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt.”
Similarly, messages sent to a new Telegram group created for information sharing showed that a person could withdraw referral bonuses.
Addressing concerns from interested members in a user group, an admin identified simply as Laura stated that the specific cause of the platform’s issues was still under investigation, adding that the findings of the ongoing probe by the UK government would determine what is eventually made public.
The message read, “There are some factors in the incident on April 14th that I cannot tell you in detail. I can only tell you that Al was attacked and the trading strategy was tampered with.
“This is why some users who did not turn on HOSTING were able to survive. And this attack was definitely not from an individual, because Al’s firewall cannot be easily breached. Including the Bybit hacker incident last month, it was definitely not something that an individual could do. This was an organized and premeditated action.
“The specific cause is under investigation, and we need to wait for the official investigation results of the UK government before we make it public. As for this channel, some scammers affected by ST and online rumour mongers who received donations from scammers deliberately stigmatized the compensation.
“Some rumour mongers even claimed that CBEX administrators transferred more than $800m in assets. These are purely slanderous rumours. An exchange’s payment system can’t have only one common account. The payment system will randomly generate deposit addresses. These are all procedures of the exchange Including any wallet we use now will regularly update the deposit address.”
According to her, users must first accept the claims process initiated by the insurance company linked to the ST Fund firm.
She said, “We need to accept the claims processing of the insurance company that the ST fund company is tied to.”
The process involves verifying the authenticity of each account before any compensation can be issued for losses allegedly caused by the AI-related incident on April 14.
She added that many users have already begun receiving compensation.
“Moreover, the impact of this incident on the Internet has seriously exceeded our expectations. The UK government has also been negotiating with the Nigerian government.”
