Huang Tianwei is one of the early representatives of China's cryptocurrency industry. In 2013, he founded the Bit Era trading platform, one of the earliest Bitcoin trading platforms in China. (Background: Chinese court: Virtual currency contracts are illegal gambling! BKEX exchange employee sentenced for 'opening a casino') (Supplementary background: The Chinese government is cleaning up NFTs! Fujian Province issued a letter: Ban on NFT trading and related business by exchanges) Local media in Thailand (Khaosod English) reported on June 12 that the Thai Immigration Bureau arrested a 39-year-old Chinese man, Huang Tianwei, at Suvarnabhumi Airport while he was attempting to board flight SL100 of Lion Air. He is accused of being involved in a cryptocurrency fraud case involving 200 million Thai Baht (approximately 44 million RMB). Huang Tianwei was once a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency circle as the founder of AEX (Anyin Trading Platform). In July 2022, the AEX cryptocurrency trading platform suffered a major crisis, shutting down its withdrawal function, claiming it could not meet users' withdrawal demands due to short-term liquidity issues. This arrest not only unveiled the mysterious veil surrounding Huang Tianwei's whereabouts in recent years but also brought the 'crisis' event of the AEX trading platform back into public view. The rise of Huang Tianwei and AEX Huang Tianwei is one of the early representatives of China's cryptocurrency industry. In 2013, he founded the Bit Era trading platform, one of the earliest Bitcoin trading platforms in China. At that time, the cryptocurrency market was still in a phase of barbaric growth, with Bitcoin prices fluctuating wildly, attracting a large number of speculators and early investors. Bit Era quickly accumulated a user base due to its low transaction fees and flexible trading mechanisms, becoming one of the more well-known trading platforms. In 2018, Bit Era was renamed AEX (Anyin Trading Platform) and began expanding into the global market. AEX focused on high-yield financial products and high-leverage trading, attracting a large number of retail investors. According to X platform user @chaoge_btc, AEX had a massive number of users at its peak, claiming that the assets it managed reached several billion dollars. Huang Tianwei himself was regarded as a legendary entrepreneur in the cryptocurrency circle due to his keen market sense and aggressive operating strategies. However, this high-yield model hid tremendous risks. AEX's crisis and Huang Tianwei's escape In 2021, the AEX trading platform began to experience liquidity crises. According to user @0xwanchongshan, AEX closed its withdrawal function in 2022 due to 'liquidity issues', resulting in a large number of users being unable to withdraw their funds. Investors discovered that the high-yield financial products promised by the platform were actually a Ponzi scheme, relying on the funds of new users to pay the interest of old users. As the market entered a bear phase and the capital chain broke, AEX quickly fell into a run crisis. According to statistics from @chaoge_btc, the AEX crisis caused approximately 22,000 victims to lose more than 20 million dollars, among which he personally lost 147 Bitcoins. The AEX crisis triggered widespread rights protection actions, but Huang Tianwei 'vanished into thin air' at this time. In 2021, he was briefly detained by local police in Guigang, Guangxi, but was subsequently released. According to X platform users, Huang Tianwei quickly fled to Thailand after his release, attempting to evade responsibility by living a low-key life. This incident infuriated many victims, who organized rights protection through social media and even pursued cross-border claims, but to little effect. The fuse of the Thai fraud case Huang Tianwei's life in Thailand was far from calm. On April 23, 2025, two Chinese nationals met with Huang Tianwei in the Mae Sai area of Chiang Rai, Thailand, to discuss a cryptocurrency investment collaboration. According to Thai police, these two victims were lured by Huang Tianwei with promises of high returns to invest approximately 200 million Thai Baht in Bitcoin. However, after the investment, the funds quickly evaporated, and Huang Tianwei went missing. The victims promptly reported to the Chiang Rai local court, which issued an arrest warrant for Huang Tianwei in April 2025, accusing him of major fraud. On June 12, Huang Tianwei was arrested by the Immigration Bureau at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand. Thai police discovered that Huang Tianwei's passport information matched the arrest warrant from Chiang Rai court during a routine check at the airport, leading to his arrest. He has now been transferred to the Mae Sai police station in Chiang Rai for further investigation. On June 14, eight Chinese investors claiming to be victims of the AEX crisis gathered at the entrance of the Chiang Rai County Police Station, demanding to meet Huang Tianwei, but the police stated that the AEX crisis was unrelated to the Thai fraud case and refused to arrange a meeting. Archer Wolfe, founder of the cryptocurrency consulting firm MohrWolfe and a former resident of Thailand, predicted in an interview with Decrypto, "Huang Tianwei is likely to be extradited back to China, and the Thai government will seize the Bitcoin unless a ridiculously high fee is paid; otherwise, they will simply close the case." Once a popular altcoin trading platform Public information shows that Huang Tianwei once served 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 hottest altcoin trading platform at the time. "At that time, the traffic of Bit Era surpassed that of Huobi, OKX, and Bitcoin China," tweeted KOL Nan Gongyuan. Tianyancha shows that four companies where Huang Tianwei served as a legal representative, including Shenzhen Era Blockchain Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Zhihui Network Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Jiuyi Era Information Technology Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Huaiqu Network Co., Ltd., have all been deregistered. Among them, the company associated with Bit Era, Shenzhen Zhihui Network Co., Ltd., was deregistered in September 2021. According to an interview article by Southern Enterprise News, Huang Tianwei claimed to have 10 years of experience in the financial industry, with investments in dozens of companies, including Tianjing Co., Ltd., Bit Era, Yixiang Network, and others. He was also involved in leading cases such as the acquisition of Lanqi Technology, raising funds for State Grid Era, and borrowing shells from Anpulon. After the AEX crisis, various social media rights protection events surged, some went to his hometown to protect their rights, while others wrote graffiti on the floor, and even raised banners. According to informed sources, the case was once filed for investigation by the Economic Crime Investigation Team of the Guigang Public Security Bureau in Guangxi, and Huang Tianwei was briefly arrested but later released.

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