Shark Binh: From the controversial statement '99% of coins make investors lose money' to the ending

Shark Bình - Ảnh 1. — Shark Binh (middle) - Photo: CAHN

Raising capital from tens of thousands of investors with the promise of "building a Vietnamese cryptocurrency ecosystem", businessman Nguyen Hoa Binh (Shark Binh) - Chairman of NextTech Group - and his accomplices have just been accused of appropriating an exceptionally large amount of money, up to hundreds of billions of VND in the AntEx virtual currency case.

This is considered a surprising ending, because less than a month ago, Shark Binh was still causing a stir on social networks with his warning statements about the risks of cryptocurrency (coin) projects.

Shark Binh once caused a storm on the internet with his warning about coin scams.

Just over ten days before being prosecuted, Mr. Binh wrote on his personal page: "Start-ups issue coins that raise a few million USD and then... fail, investors lose money. They launch coins, raise 3-5 million USD, and then start to 'fail'. Most projects do not continue or fail. 99% of coins fall into this situation: investors lose money, while founders 'keep the money' and benefit legally."

Mr. Binh even said that his sharing was from the "pain" of real life. Shark Binh said that he had had many "valuable" experiences with cryptocurrency since 2017.

Mr. Binh said that in 2021, through the Next100Blockchain fund, he poured 2.5 million USD into AntEx. But shortly after, the Antex token lost 99% of its value, the website and media channels disappeared...

However, looking back at 2021, when the AntEx cryptocurrency project was just launched, Mr. Binh not only appeared as a strategic investor, but also regularly promoted and introduced this project on many platforms.

In the early stages, his image was almost synonymous with AntEx, with hopeful statements and "winged" compliments for the project.

Don't invest in a project because you believe in someone's reputation.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre, the director of a cryptocurrency venture capital fund in Vietnam said he was invited to invest and advise on the AntEx project, but declined because it did not meet the fund's criteria.

This person commented that although many people consider AntEx a "trash coin" or "meme coin", in reality the project has a fairly methodical marketing team and strategy, making many investors trust and invest thanks to the reputation of the founding team.

Returning to the Shark Binh case, right after he spoke up on social media claiming that he was the victim who lost 2.5 million USD when investing in AntEx, another account immediately appeared, accusing him of being the one behind the "dumping" of tokens.

In the face of criticism, Mr. Binh said the purpose of his statement was to "bring out into the light the traitors who have been hiding in the dark, tarnishing his reputation for many years."

Not stopping there, Mr. Binh also publicly challenged the anonymous accusers to appear for a direct confrontation in a livestream.

Before the livestream could take place, on October 14, Hanoi Police announced that they had prosecuted Mr. Binh and 9 others for fraud and violation of accounting regulations causing serious consequences.

According to the investigation agency, Mr. Binh contributed 2 billion VND to the project. At the same time, he and the founding shareholders were accused of withdrawing money from 30,000 investor wallets, appropriating an exceptionally large amount of money.

How can investors identify risks when investing in cryptocurrencies?

Ms. Ha Vo Bich Van, financial advisor of FIDT Investment Consulting and Asset Management Joint Stock Company, noted some signs of identifying risks when investing in cryptocurrencies and how to check:

Token	Risk	How to check
Anonymous, non-transparent development team	If you don't know who is behind it, it's easy to "run away" after mobilizing.	Check dev team information, profile, previous projects, verify identity if applicable
No clear roadmap or the roadmap is too beautiful	Without specific steps, it is difficult to control implementation.	Compare the roadmap with reality, see if the project has achieved any committed milestones
Over-promotion (strong marketing) but the product is not available yet	Big media but no real product	Offer to demo your product or prototype to demonstrate how it works in real life.
Loss of communication / sudden silence of communication channel	When a project is silent and unresponsive to the community, it could be a sign of impending collapse.	Follow Telegram/Discord/Twitter, if the team disappears it is very dangerous
Promises profits far beyond normal ,	If the promised returns are too high (e.g. 100%/year or "double in 1 month"), it may be a Ponzi scam.	Compare to market rates; beware of promises that are too good to be true
Previous scam patterns	If the project or dev team has ever been involved in a scandal, been accused of fraud, or is suspicious	Check dev history, name, old projects, community feedback