Hong Kong's securities regulator has warned that Fun Coffee, a Vietnam-linked venture masquerading as a coffee investment brand, appears to have operated a cryptocurrency scam. Investors across the city are now reporting total losses exceeding HK$1 billion (approximately $127 million).

Fun Coffee Promised 222% Returns Before Vanishing

Fun Coffee entered the Hong Kong market in late 2025 with aggressive promotions and a headline-grabbing pledge of annual returns reaching as high as 222%. Participants were required to download a mobile app, complete designated "tasks," and transfer funds via virtual assets, with interest purportedly paid out at a later date. Many recruits reported being introduced to the scheme by people they already knew personally.

The company claimed to be headquartered on Vietnam's Phu Quoc island, with assets exceeding US$1 billion and a workforce of over 5,000 employees. It drew comparisons to major coffee chains and floated ambitions of an eventual public listing. In December 2025, Fun Coffee organized a local running event and distributed leaflets — some ironically framed as anti-fraud awareness materials.

By the end of July, users reported that withdrawals had been blocked and that some were unable to log into their accounts at all. A single chat group amassed more than 370 affected individuals, while several groups combined totaled approximately 4,000 members. Their collective accounting puts total losses at more than HK$1 billion ($127 million).

The company's listed Kowloon Bay headquarters and a Mong Kok store were both found vacant, with landlord notices posted over unpaid rent dating from the start of the month. Public corporate filings revealed three separate Hong Kong companies operating under the Fun Coffee name, all incorporated between late 2025 and early 2026.

A Hong Kong woman in her fifties said she had been recruited to promote the app within her community and had built a network of more than one hundred "downline" accounts beneath her. She stated that she only discovered her identity had been used to register her as a shareholder and director of a local Fun Coffee company after being contacted by the press. She has since filed a complaint with police, alleging misuse of her personal information.

Both Hong Kong and Vietnam Issued Warnings Before the Collapse

Vietnamese state television reported in May 2026 that the country's Ministry of Public Security had identified signs of a Ponzi scheme within the operation. On July 13, Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a public warning stating that the "Fun Coffee GCM project" appeared to be a suspicious investment scheme and cautioned the public that they risked losing their entire principal. The SFC operates a licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms under the Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance, requiring operators to meet capital, governance, and investor-protection standards before serving the Hong Kong public. Fun Coffee was not licensed under this framework.

As of the end of July, Hong Kong Police had received 115 reports connected to the case, which has been referred to the Commercial Crime Bureau's deception investigation team. The cross-border character of the scheme — incorporated in Hong Kong, claiming headquarters in Vietnam, and soliciting funds via virtual assets — adds jurisdictional complexity to both the criminal investigation and any potential path to recovering investor funds.

For context, Hong Kong authorities have designated the JPEX platform case as the city's largest financial fraud in recent years, in which more than 2,700 investors were defrauded of over HK$1.6 billion ($204 million). That case followed a similar trajectory — beginning with an SFC warning followed by stalled withdrawals. Since the JPEX investigation was launched in September 2023, police have arrested 80 individuals, frozen approximately HK$228 million ($29 million) in assets, and charged 26 people. Interpol has also issued red notices for three fugitives believed to have been central figures in that scheme.