Rewinding to late November 2021, the cryptocurrency market witnessed a staggering 99% price plunge for the ANTEX token. Once a promising asset, ANTEX suddenly became nearly worthless, with its development team going silent and disappearing from all communication channels. Early investors were left with virtually nothing.
The ANTEX debacle is linked to a “Rug Pull,” a term accusing the project’s team, including Shark Binh, of fraud. Investors allege that Shark Binh and his associates orchestrated this scheme.
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Investigations by Hanoi Police revealed that the AntEx project launched in September 2021, led by Shark Binh and his team. Binh was positioned as a “strategic advisor,” investing $2.5 million through the Next100 Blockchain fund. Lessons from Shark Binh: Beware of Crypto Scams Shark Binh Arrested, $38 Million Seized Between August and November 2021, 33.2 billion ANTEX tokens were issued and sold to approximately 30,000 investors across exchanges, raising $4.5 million (around $117 billion VND). However, the project failed to meet its roadmap. Shark Binh and NextTech shareholders withdrew funds from the AntEx wallet, transferring them to personal accounts, converting them to Vietnamese Dong, and sharing the proceeds. Authorities confirmed that Shark Binh and his associates drained funds from 30,000 investor wallets, committing a massive fraud. |
A Rug Pull is a common scam in the cryptocurrency and NFT space, where developers abruptly vanish with investors’ funds. This is typically achieved by removing liquidity or dumping tokens, causing the asset’s value to collapse. Investors are left reeling, suffering significant losses.
In the crypto market, Rug Pulls are among the most devastating threats. Projects can be rug-pulled in various ways: “Liquidity Stealing” (developers withdraw all assets from the liquidity pool, crashing the value to zero), “Limiting Sell Orders” (smart contracts prevent investors from selling, allowing only developers to sell), “Pump and Dump” (developers inflate the price before selling off), or “Slow Rug Pull” (gradual token sales over time to profit without causing an immediate crash). Regardless of the method, the outcome is the same: investors’ assets vanish.
Before AntEx, the world witnessed several shocking Rug Pulls, resulting in massive financial losses.
Thodex – $2 Billion Vanishes Overnight
In 2021, Thodex was one of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. In April 2021, founder Faruk Fatih Özer halted all trading, locked 391,000 user accounts, and fled the country. The estimated loss was $2 billion, making it one of the largest Rug Pulls and Exit Scams at the time.
Faruk Fatih Özer – CEO and Founder of Thodex
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Before the Rug Pull, Thodex launched a massive marketing campaign, giving away free Dogecoin to new users. Four million tokens were distributed in just one month. Once enough users were hooked, Özer executed the scam, fleeing with the funds.
Faruk Fatih Özer was placed on Interpol’s wanted list and arrested in Albania in August 2022. In September 2023, he was sentenced to nearly 11,200 years in prison for money laundering, fraud, and organizing a criminal network. Thodex’s collapse highlighted that even centralized exchanges (CEX), considered safer than decentralized ones (DEX), can be scam hubs without proper oversight.
AnubisDAO – $60 Million Liquidity Drain in Under a Day
The AnubisDAO scam occurred in 2021, just months after Thodex’s collapse. The project launched on October 28, 2021, with numerous red flags: no whitepaper, anonymous developers, and no official website. Despite this, it raised $60 million in ETH within a day, using a logo inspired by Dogecoin.
Within 20 hours of the fundraise, AnubisDAO’s developers withdrew all ETH from the liquidity pool and disappeared, rendering the ANKH token worthless. The funds were laundered through a crypto mixer, making recovery impossible.
AnubisDAO was the second-largest scam of 2021, after Thodex. It underscored the risks of investing based on hype and FOMO. Brian Nguyen, a Hong Kong investor, shared with CNBC that he invested $470,000 without due diligence, driven by the “buy now, research later” mentality common among crypto investors.
SQUID – The Dangers of FOMO
The SQUID scam exploited the popularity of Netflix’s “Squid Game.” The token was marketed as the currency for an upcoming GameFi project. Starting at $0.01, SQUID surged to $2,861 within a week, a 286,000x increase.
The SQUID developers implemented a sophisticated scam, embedding an anti-sell mechanism in the smart contract. Investors couldn’t sell their tokens (only buy), while the developers’ wallets could sell freely. As the price soared, investors poured in money. Once the developers accumulated enough funds, they dumped the tokens, crashing the price from $2,861 to $0 in minutes. The estimated loss was $3.38 million, laundered through crypto mixers, making recovery impossible.
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Real Estate Firm Founded by Shark Bình: Dual Accounting Systems Caused Significant State Budget Losses, Capital Reduction One Month Before Arrest
Shark Bình orchestrated a scheme to reduce profits and conceal revenue by instructing employees to undervalue sales on customer contracts, resulting in significant financial losses to the state budget.
The Shark Binh Incident: Unraveling AntEx and the Blind Rush to Convert Real Money into Virtual Currency
From a celebrated startup icon, Nguyen Hoa Binh (Shark Binh) has become the central figure in the largest digital currency scandal in history. As Vietnamese law grapples with defining “digital assets,” the AntEx case, facilitated through the Next100Blockchain fund, reveals a sophisticated scheme behind grandiose media campaigns, exploiting investor trust for personal gain.
The Full Story Behind the AntEx Crypto Project Scandal Leading to Shark Bình’s Arrest
According to Hanoi City Police, Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh (Shark Binh) has been prosecuted and detained on charges of fraud and appropriation of property related to the AntEx digital currency project.
What Was Shark Bình Plotting Before His Arrest by Reviving the Digital Currency Scandal Online?
From the “shark” sensation on television, Shark Bình has become the focal point of a cryptocurrency fraud case in Vietnam. Prior to his arrest, Bình himself took to social media, claiming to be a “victim” after investing in the AntEx cryptocurrency project. The public is now left wondering: what is this ‘shark’ truly scheming?
Portrait of the Successor to Shark Bình as CEO of NextTech Group
There has been a significant shift in leadership.
