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Hundreds of people across South East Asia have lost millions in an alleged crypto scam and Ponzi scheme posing as a coffee investment venture.
The venture was called Fun Coffee, and appears to have originated in Vietnam. The brand purported to have developed various coffee technologies and sought investors, according to the Asia News Network. The tech ranged from brewing machines and irrigation systems to something the outlet describes as “optimized coffee-gene technology” (we don’t know what that means either). The company claimed to have more than $1 billion in assets, and said it hoped to go public within three years.
Users engaged with the brand via an app, where they were encouraged to invest via cryptocurrency. If that wasn’t enough, the app incentivized them to recruit others to join. The more people they recruited, the higher their returns could be—some were promised returns up to 278% on their original investment. From Vietnam, the company expanded to Hong Kong in 2025, as well as to Macau, China, and Singapore.
Fun Coffee also pitched itself as a health club and fitness company, hosting group exercise meet-ups which included encouraging attendees to film promotional videos. Participants were promised bonuses if they could recruit other members, who were also encouraged to download the app and invest in the venture.
But it was all a scam. The app went offline on July 20, and investors were unable to withdraw their money. Hong Kong police officials, in conjunction with Macau authorities, launched an investigation and arrested eight suspects. Victims lost more than $13 million in the scheme.
At a press conference, Hong Kong lawmaker Johnny Ng Kit-chong said that there may be more than 1,000 victims. Some lost everything—one victim told the media, “I put my entire life savings into it, and now I cannot even afford a daily life”.
Read more on the coffee crypto scam from Asia News Network here.
Photo by Isaac Benhesed on Unsplash
