From Shark Binh's AntEx case, how are the cryptocurrency projects created by Vietnamese people?

(Dan Tri) - Shark Binh has just been prosecuted and detained on charges of fraud and appropriation of a particularly large amount of money related to the AntEx cryptocurrency project. This has attracted strong attention in the Vietnamese cryptocurrency community.

Shark Binh's scandal at AntEx

The AntEx cryptocurrency project was launched in September 2021, introduced as a decentralized financial ecosystem (DeFi) with the stablecoin VNDT "anchored" to the value of the Vietnamese Dong. Stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that maintains its price by being tied to real assets.

Shark Binh attracted great attention when he announced a $2.5 million investment through the Next100 Blockchain fund, while also taking on the role of strategic advisor.

However, after listing, AntEx's token quickly lost 99% of its value, causing many investors to lose money. AntEx then had almost no activity and in March 2023 announced a name change to Rabbit (RAB), a move that was believed to erase the history of price declines, but the new token continued to plummet.

According to the newly announced conclusion of the investigation agency, from August 2021 to November 2021, Shark Binh's group issued and sold 33.2 billion "AntEx digital currency" to about 30,000 investors on the exchanges, earning 4.5 million USDT (USDT is a digital currency, equivalent to 4.5 million USD, about 117 billion VND).

Many "made in Vietnam" cryptocurrency projects, how are they now?

Before AntEx, many cryptocurrency projects founded by Vietnamese people also made a splash.

First is TomoChain, founded in 2017 by Dr. Vuong Quang Long. The goal is to create an efficient blockchain platform for decentralized applications.

Despite some achievements, during the development process, TomoChain realized that achieving widespread blockchain adoption was a bigger challenge than they imagined. In 2023, TomoChain decided to change its name to Viction. Currently, VIC is 0.23 USD, down sharply from the peak of 3.4 USD (3/2021).

Another popular project is Kyber Network (2017), founded by Luu The Loi, Tran Huy Vu (Victor Tran) and Yaron Velner. Kyber operates as a decentralized liquidity center, officially opening its mainnet on Ethereum since February 2018. The KNC token once reached 5.6 USD (4/2022), now only 0.38 USD, down more than 93%.

Sky Mavis CEO Nguyen Thanh Trung (Photo: DT).

Or Axie Infinity was born in 2018, which attracted a lot of attention in the international playground with the Play-to-Earn model, helping players earn money from NFT “Axies”. It is known that Axie Infinity is the result of Sky Mavis - a game studio co-founded by CEO Nguyen Thanh Trung (born in 1992) and 4 other people. Three of the project's five founders are Vietnamese, in addition to one American and one Norwegian.

AXS Token once peaked at over $150 (October 2021). However, after the Ronin Network hack (March 2022) that caused a loss of $620 million, the project was forced to restructure and switch to the Play & Earn model to sustain.

Also in 2018, the KardiaChain project was co-founded by Eric Hung Nguyen, Pham Minh Tri and Nguyen Huy. Eric Hung Nguyen is the Chairman and financial expert, while Nguyen Huy is the co-founder, CTO and former senior manager of Google.

Initially, KardiaChain aimed at blockchain solutions for businesses and governments . KAI Token once reached 0.16 USD (4/2021), now only 0.001 USD. In July 2025, KardiaChain changed its name to KaiChain.

Mr. Nguyen The Vinh - Co-founder of Coin98 (Photo: DT).

The cryptocurrency community is also very familiar with Coin98 - born in 2021 and once expected to become a "Web3 super application". Coin98 was once recognized by the media as the "billion dollar" turning point of Vietnamese engineer Nguyen The Vinh.

Token C98 once reached 5.3 USD (August 2021), now only 0.05 USD. Notably, right after the Government issued the pilot resolution, Coin98 announced to stop providing services to Vietnamese citizens and close the Vietnamese community channel.

Regarding the AntEx case, the police determined that Shark Binh used his reputation and influence to post information on social networks about the launch of the "Next100 Blockchain" investment fund, pledging to invest in digital currency projects with a total capital of 50 million USD in 10 years.

However, so far, the investigation agency has determined that Mr. Binh and the founding shareholders withdrew money from about 30,000 investor wallets, appropriating an exceptionally large amount of money.

The investigation agency has temporarily detained and frozen money, securities accounts, and assets of the subjects such as nearly 600 taels of gold, 18 red books, 2 cars... with a total value of about 900 billion VND.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/tu-vu-antex-cua-shark-binh-cac-du-an-tien-so-do-nguoi-viet-lap-ra-sao-20251015183424985.htm