Police arrest gang for $380M Matrix Chain crypto scam

By Phuoc Tuan May 27, 2025 | 09:07 pm PT

Police in southern Dong Nai Province arrested Nguyen Quoc Hung and his accomplices for allegedly running a cryptocurrency scam and swindling people out of VND10 trillion (US$386 million) through Matrix Chain.

It is a decentralized blockchain platform designed for financial applications. Hung, 41, Bui Thi Thanh Nga, 34, and three others were arrested on May 28 in Dong Nai. Dozens of suspected accomplices are also under investigation.

According to the police, the group promoted Matrix Chain, a trading platform using the MTC token, an asset with no real value, as a high-return investment. Beginning in early 2024 they held promotional events and operated under a pyramid scheme model across Vietnam’s to lure investors. They managed to attract over 138,000 user accounts and collected more than VND10 trillion.

Hung has admitted to investigators that in February 2023 he hired an anonymous group via Telegram to develop the MTC platform for 20,000 USDT (Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar), equivalent to $20,000. The platform was built using the SafePal e-wallet and B2B Smart Trade system. Users were required to deposit 1 USDT into a so-called "platform fee wallet" managed by Nga.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, with face mask on, whe arrested by the the police in southern Dong Nai Province. Photo courtesy of the police

Of the money thus collected, 40% went to regional recruiters and 5% for promotional campaigns while the rest was used to buy real estate in northern localities like Hanoi and Bac Ninh, Hoa Binh, Hung Yen, and Thai Nguyen provinces in the names of Nga and her family members.

Hung also held a separate SafePal wallet containing 100 million MTC tokens that he used to manipulate prices and withdraw users’ USDT deposits. To expand the scheme, the pair trained recruiters and created online communities on Telegram and Facebook, promising "huge profits" and "massive commissions." Investigators said Hung, Nga and her sister Bui Thi Thanh Hoa created multiple wallets to receive funds from users and illegally trade USDT on the black market.

An official at the Ministry of Public Security said the 200-day operation to uncover the scam involved elite officers tracking the suspects around the clock. Investigations are ongoing to identify and prosecute others involved.