From AEX founder to prisoner: The story of Huang Tianweis arrest in Thailand

原作者：1912212.eth，前瞻新聞

On June 12, local Thai media Khaosod English reported that the Thai Immigration Bureau arrested a 39-year-old Chinese man, Huang Tianwei, at Don Mueang International Airport when he was trying to board Lion Air Flight S L1 00. He was accused of being involved in a 加密貨幣currency fraud case involving 200 million baht (about 5 million US dollars). Huang Tianwei is the founder of AEX (Anyin 交換), which was once a big name in the currency circle. In July 2022, the crypto trading platform AEX collapsed and closed the withdrawal function, saying that it could not meet the withdrawal needs of users due to short-term liquidity problems.

This arrest not only unveiled the mystery of Huang Tianweis whereabouts in recent years, but also brought the thunderstorm incident of the AEX exchange back into the public eye.

Huang Tianwei and the rise of AEX

Huang Tianwei is one of the early representatives of Chinas cryptocurrency industry. In 2013, he founded the BitTimes Exchange, one of the earliest Bitcoin trading platforms in China. At that time, the cryptocurrency market was still in a stage of wild growth, and the price of Bitcoin fluctuated violently, attracting a large number of speculators and early investors. BitTimes quickly accumulated a user base with low fees and flexible trading mechanisms, becoming one of the most famous trading platforms.

In 2018, BitEra was renamed AEX (Anyin Exchange) and began to expand into the global market. AEX focuses on high-yield financial products and high-leverage transactions, attracting a large number of retail investors. According to X platform user @chaoge_btc, AEX had a huge number of users at its peak, and the platform claimed that the scale of assets under management reached billions of dollars.

Huang Tianwei himself is also regarded as a legendary entrepreneur in the cryptocurrency circle for his keen market sense and aggressive operating strategy. However, there are huge risks hidden behind this high-yield model.

AEX crash and Huang Tianweis escape

In 2021, the AEX exchange began to experience a liquidity crisis. According to user @0x wanchongshan, AEX closed the withdrawal function in 2022 due to liquidity problems, resulting in a large number of users being unable to withdraw funds. Investors discovered that the high-yield financial products promised by the platform were actually Ponzi schemes that relied on funds from new users to pay interest to old users. When the market entered a bear market and the capital chain broke, AEX quickly fell into a run crisis.

According to @chaoge_btc, the AEX crash caused about 22,000 victims to lose more than 20 million US dollars, of which he himself lost 147 比特幣s。

The AEX crash triggered widespread rights protection actions, but Huang Tianwei disappeared at this time. In 2021, he was briefly detained by local police in Guigang, Guangxi, but was later released. According to X user, Huang Tianwei quickly fled to Thailand after his release, trying to evade accountability by living a low-key life. This incident angered many victims, who organized rights protection through social media and even pursued claims across borders, but with little success.

The trigger of the Thailand fraud case

Huang Tianweis life in Thailand is not peaceful. On April 23, 2025, two Chinese nationals met with Huang Tianwei in Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, to discuss a cryptocurrency investment cooperation. According to the Thai police, the two victims were lured by Huang Tianwei to invest about 200 million baht in Bitcoin with high returns. However, the funds evaporated quickly after the investment, and Huang Tianwei lost contact. The victim immediately reported the case to the Chiang Rai District Court, and the court issued an arrest warrant in April 2025, accusing Huang Tianwei of suspected major fraud.

On June 12, Huang Tianwei was arrested by the immigration department at Don Muang International Airport in Thailand. During a routine check at the airport, the Thai police found that Huang Tianweis passport information matched the wanted order of the Chiang Rai Court and arrested him. At present, he has been transferred to the Mae Sai District Police Station in Chiang Rai Province for further investigation. On June 14, eight Chinese investors who claimed to be victims of the AEX crash gathered at the door of the Chiang Rai County Police Station and asked to meet with Huang Tianwei, but the police said that the AEX crash had nothing to do with the Thai fraud case and refused to arrange a meeting.

Archer Wolfe, founder of cryptocurrency consultancy MohrWolfe and a former Thailand resident, predicted in an interview with Decrypto that “Huang will most likely be extradited back to China and the Thai government will seize the Bitcoin and simply close the case unless an outrageous fee is paid.”

Once became a popular copycat trading platform

Public information shows that Huang Tianwei once worked as a product manager and project manager at Tencent and was the vice president of Fantasy Basketball Manager. He founded Bit Era in 2013, which was the most popular altcoin trading platform at the time. At that time, the traffic of Bit Era surpassed Huobi, OKX and Bitcoin China, wrote Twitter KOL Nangong Yuan.

Tianyancha shows that the four companies of which Huang Tianwei is the legal representative, Shenzhen Times Blockchain Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Zhiwei Network Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Jiuyi Times Information Technology Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Huiqu Network Co., Ltd., have all been deregistered. Among them, Shenzhen Zhiwei Network Co., Ltd., a company affiliated with BitTimes under Huang Tianwei, was deregistered in September 2021.

According to an exclusive interview article on Southern Enterprise News Network, Huang Tianwei claimed to have 10 years of experience in the financial industry. His investments include dozens of companies such as Tianjin Holdings, Bitmain, and Yixiang Network. He has also participated in and led cases such as the merger and acquisition of Lanqi Technology, the fundraising of State Grid Times, and the backdoor listing of Amplon.

After the AEX crash, rights protection incidents emerged on various social platforms. Some people went to its hometown to defend their rights, some graffitied and wrote on the floor, and even put up banners.

According to people familiar with the matter, the case was investigated by the Economic Crime Investigation Brigade of the Guigang Public Security Bureau in Guangxi. Huang Tianwei was arrested and later released. Foresight News will continue to follow the development of the case.

原文連結

This article is sourced from the internet: From AEX founder to prisoner: The story of Huang Tianweis arrest in Thailand

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