How Shark Tank investor Nguyen Hoa Binh pulled $4.5M crypto rug

When the AntEx token was listed in 2021, Binh (now 44), chairman of tech firm NextTech, said publicly that the crypto had brought its investors large profits even before it became available to retail investors.

Nguyen Hoa Binh, chairman of tech firm NextTech. Photo from Nguyen Hoa Binh's Facebook page

"At one point, seed round investors multiplied their investment by 35 times, private round investors by 27 times, pre-sale investors by 20 times, and public investors by 14 times, all in less than 3 months," he claimed in a Facebook post in November 2021 after AntEx was listed.

Binh and his collaborators planned to sell 100 billion AntEx tokens in all, and managed to sell 33.2 billion to 30,000 investors on various exchanges, collecting 4.5 million USDT (equivalent to US$4.5 million).

Binh capitalized on his reputation and influence to post on social media about launching the "Next100 Blockchain" investment fund, committing to invest $50 million in cryptocurrency projects over 10 years to promote AntEx. The police said this was a ruse to preclude a mass sell-off.

Public data of AntEx shows one wallet recording unusually large amounts of transactions, according to Hanoi-based blockchain data platform Hashwei Foundation and research agency 52Hz Database.

This wallet alone held over $3.67 million worth of AntEx tokens, or 81% of total. It also traded a number of AntEx tokens for 1.45 million USDT, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, which means it can be converted to the Vietnamese dong.

This confirmed the police’s allegation that Binh and his collaborators withdrew funds from the project’s main wallet, converted them into dong and shared them.

Hashwei data also shows that the leaders of the project used up to 30 main wallets to dump their tokens within five days of listing, and continued to "pull the rug slowly" by converting AntEx to other stablecoins in the months after the listing.

AntEx's historical price. Graphics by CoinDesk

On Dec. 31 alone the project leaders converted AntEx to $542,000 worth of stablecoin. Within five months of listing, AntEx lost 99% of its value.

To revive interest in the crypto, Binh and his collaborators changed its name to Rabbit in March 2023, and holders of AntEx got one for to every 1,000 they held.

But Rabbit also failed, with its value plunging by 95% within three months. Data from crypto platforms shows nearly 11,800 wallets still hold this crypto, but there are few transactions in it.

The role of ‘tech shark’

"AntEx is a project no one would have paid attention to but for a famous entrepreneur being behind it," the head of a Vietnamese cryptocurrency exchange, who asked to be anonymous, said.

The crypto emerged in 2021 amid a global digital asset boom as Bitcoin’s record highs fueled the establishment of many digital assets.

Vietnam led global crypto adoption with a vibrant market driven by startups, blockchain platform Chainalysis said.

The financial market grew rapidly as the pandemic stalled production, pushing capital to high-risk investments.

A 2021 Coin68 report had said 60% of individuals in Vietnam were new to digital assets.

AntEx is directly tied to Binh who serves as the project’s strategic advisor. The project announced at its launch that Binh’s company NextTech and his investment fund Next100 Venture had made an investment of $2.5 million in it, though the actual contribution has yet to be independently confirmed.

While Binh publicly promoted the crypto early on, in September this year he told the public that the project leaders had vanished, causing losses for investors, including himself.

Vimo Technology, a NextTech subsidiary, claimed AntEx was Binh’s personal project and unrelated to NextTech, which is run by an independent team with transparent governance.

Binh was arrested by the Hanoi police earlier this month on charges of fraudulent appropriation of assets and violations of accounting regulations causing serious consequences. Nine others face the same charges.

He was dubbed "technology shark" after participating in the TV show Shark Tank Vietnam, where he invested in dozens of startups primarily in e-commerce, fintech and media.

In 2001, as a second-year student at the National University of Hanoi, he founded Peacesoft, a software company, which later evolved into NextTech.

NextTech’s main businesses include financial technology (Ngan Luong, mPOS, Vimo), e-commerce and logistics (Boxme, NextSmartShip).