Tokenize Xchange users sue founder and his wife for over $60m in lost assets

More than 270 former customers of collapsed cryptocurrency platform Tokenize Xchange have launched a collective lawsuit seeking $60.5 million in damages from the firm’s founder for fraudulent misrepresentation.

Court papers reviewed by The Business Times on Nov 28 show that the group has filed a representative action in the High Court against Hong Qi Yu, who is also the founder and chief executive of AmazingTech, the company that operated Tokenize.

The suit also names his wife, Ms Erin Koo Kee Hoon, as a defendant. She was the company’s chief operating officer.

The lawsuit is being led by representative claimants Low Jun Hong, Sean Joseph McKendrick, Lum Marn Chi, Chim Tat Hong, Peter McCorkindale and Chen Yuanjing. The claimants are Singapore residents.

They represent a total of 272 customers who held accounts with the exchange.

A report filed by court-appointed interim judicial managers in September found that AmazingTech owed customers about $266.3 million, against realisable assets of just $2.6 million.

The claimants allege that the shortfall of $263.7 million was fraudulently misappropriated by Hong and Ms Koo.

The $60.5 million in damages sought reflects the value of the assets the group held on the platform as at July 31, 2025, or on the date they tried to withdraw them.

Mr Suresh Divyanathan, managing director of Dauntless Law Chambers, which represents the claimants, told The Straits Times on Dec 1 that the defendants have not responded.

Their deadline to file a notice of intention to contest or not contest the suit is Dec 8, and if they choose to contest the claims, they must file their defence by Dec 15, he added.

Mr Divyanathan said the interim judicial managers’ finding that AmazingTech appeared to hold realisable assets worth less than 1 per cent of customers’ total assets came as a “deep shock” to his clients.

“(My clients) are incensed that practically all their assets on Tokenize Xchange have disappeared... It would be financially too burdensome for each client to pursue recovery so this representative action is a way for them to more economically share the costs of attempting to obtain damages for their loss,” he said.

“We therefore expect such representative actions on behalf of a large group of consumers to become more common going forward.”

Mr Nichol Yeo, managing director of Nine Yard Chambers, which represents Hong, confirmed on Dec 1 that Hong has not filed his defence and said it will be submitted “in due course”.

Tokenize Xchange said on July 20 that it will shut down the business following the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) decision not to grant it a licence to offer digital payment token services here. It was previously operating under an exemption. 

The Singapore-headquartered company had told The Straits Times that it was going to move its operations to Labuan, a federal territory in Malaysia. It also said it would seek regulatory approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market, an international financial centre and free economic zone located in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.

In a joint statement on Aug 1, the MAS and the Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department said AmazingTech and its related entities were under investigation for potential offences, including fraudulent trading under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act.

The authorities also said Hong was charged in court on July 31 with fraudulent trading under the same Act.

AmazingTech was placed under interim judicial management on Aug 15 and was wound up by the High Court on Sept 30.

Cryptocurrencies have had a mixed year in 2025. Optimism around the launch of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and pro-crypto policies in the US pushed the price of Bitcoin to a record high of more than US$120,000 in October.

Since then, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has fallen nearly 30 per cent and was trading around US$86,000 at the time of writing.

The MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Small-Cap Index – a market capitalisation-weighted gauge of the 50 smallest cryptocurrencies – has fallen by more than 70 per cent over the past year.

These cryptocurrencies, often referred to as alternative coins or “altcoins”, tend to be thinly traded and are largely held by retail investors.

Tokenize Xchange’s own crypto token, which was used to pay transaction fees and offered users discounts, among other perks, has fallen more than 80 per cent in value since July 20 and over 90 per cent since the start of the year. It is now trading at about $1.70.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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