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Hong Kong’s securities regulator has warned that Fun Coffee has seemingly run a cryptocurrency scam.
The venture linked to Vietnam masqueraded as a coffee investment brand. Total losses of more than HK$1 billion, or $127 million, are now being reported by investors across the city.
Fun Coffee promised 222% returns, then emptied its offices
Fun Coffee came to Hong Kong in late 2025 with loud promotions and a promise that did most of the selling, with annual returns of as much as 222%. To collect, participants were asked to download an app, complete what were called “tasks,” and send money via virtual assets. Interest was to come later. Many of those who signed up said they were brought in by someone they already knew.
The business claimed a headquarters on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island, funds above US$1 billion, and more than 5,000 employees. It compared itself to the big coffee chains and floated ideas about going public. In December 2025, they held a local running event and handed out leaflets, some of them bizarrely framed as anti-fraud awareness.
By the end of July, users said withdrawals were blocked, and some said they could not log into their accounts at all. A single chat group had more than 370 affected people, and several groups combined had around 4,000. Their tally has taken total losses to more than HK$1 billion or $127 million.
The listed Kowloon Bay headquarters and a Mong Kok store were both vacant, with landlord notices pinned up over unpaid rent from the start of the month. Public filings showed three different Hong Kong companies using the Fun Coffee name, all incorporated between late 2025 and early 2026.
A 50-something Hong Kong woman said she had been recruited to promote the app in her neighborhood and had built up more than a hundred “downline” accounts under her. She said she only learned that her identity had been used to register her as a shareholder and director of a local company called Fun Coffee after press inquiries. She has lodged a complaint with the police, alleging misuse of her personal information.
Hong Kong and Vietnam both warned before the collapse
Vietnamese state television reported in May 2026 that the country’s Ministry of Public Security saw signs of a Ponzi scheme. On 13 July, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission issued a public warning that the “Fun Coffee GCM project” looked like a suspicious investment and warned the public that they might lose their entire principal.
As of the end of July, the Hong Kong Police had received 115 reports related to the case, which was referred to the deception investigation team of the Commercial Crime Bureau.
Hong Kong authorities have labeled the JPEX platform as the city’s largest financial fraud case in recent years, scamming more than 2,700 investors out of over HK$1.6 billion or $204 million, according to Cryptopolitan. It’s unraveling too, started with an SFC warning and then stalled withdrawals.
Since the investigation was launched in September 2023, police have arrested 80 people, frozen some HK$228 million or $29 million in assets, and charged 26. Interpol issued red notices for three fugitives believed to have been central to the scheme.
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