Vietnamese authorities have arrested Vuong Le Vinh Nhan (aka Eric Vuong) for allegedly orchestrating a large-scale crypto investment scheme that defrauded investors of billions of dollars, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
The development underscores mounting regulatory scrutiny of the country’s fast-growing, but still loosely governed, digital asset market.
Nhan, 45, Chairman of HVA Group, was detained on Thursday (March 26) as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of computer and telecommunications networks to appropriate assets. Several accomplices have also been charged, including Tran Quang Chien, a technical administrator of the ONUS exchange, and Ngo Thi Thao, an executive at HANAGOLD.
HVA Group, listed on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UpCOM), is understood to have invested in both ONUS and HANAGOLD.
Nhan is also Vice President of the Vietnam Digital Asset Alliance and CEO of innovation startup investment fund FundGo.
Authorities said Nhan was behind the creation and promotion of multiple cryptocurrencies, including VNDC, ONUS, and HNG, which were distributed via the ONUS platform. Investigators allege the group used misleading advertising to inflate perceived value and conducted wash trading to fabricate supply-demand dynamics, enabling price manipulation and investor losses.
Launched in 2020 and marketed as a fintech and crypto investment super-app, ONUS gained significant traction in Vietnam. At one point, it reportedly had nearly 2 million accounts—around 90% of them domestic users—and later claimed more than 7 million users globally, according to local media VnExpress.
The platform offered a range of services, including token swaps, derivatives trading, staking, and peer-to-peer transactions, while also developing its own blockchain infrastructure, ONUSChain.
The arrest follows a recent outage on March 20 that left users unable to access their accounts or digital assets, raising concerns over fund safety. Strategic partner HVA Group and VNDC have since distanced themselves from ONUS’s operations, stating they do not control user assets.
Earlier, in October 2025, Vietnamese tech entrepreneur Nguyen Hoa Binh was arrested and charged with large-scale and serious fraud tied to the AntEx digital asset project.
The police confirmed that Binh faces criminal charges of fraudulent appropriation of property and violations of accounting regulations, causing serious consequences.
Most recently, Binh was also accused of laundering funds in a major fraud case.
Vietnamese firms are racing to establish the country’s first licensed cryptocurrency exchanges, as authorities step up efforts to rein in trading activity on offshore platforms in one of the world’s most active digital asset markets.
Under a government resolution issued in February, Hanoi is preparing to launch a pilot framework for domestically operated crypto exchanges as early as this month, part of a broader push to strengthen oversight of trading activity and better manage capital flows.
After years without formal regulatory framework, Vietnam’s cryptocurrency market took a significant step forward with the issuance of Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP on September 9, 2025. The resolution introduces a five-year pilot programme for the sector, grounded in principles of prudence, oversight, transparency, and investor protection.
