More than 270 former customers of shuttered crypto exchange Tokenize Xchange have filed a collective lawsuit in the High Court seeking S$60.5 million in damages from founder Hong Qi Yu and his wife, former chief operating officer Erin Koo Kee Hoon.

The suit accuses the pair of fraudulent misrepresentation and misappropriating customer funds, according to court papers reported by The Straits Times.

Six Singapore residents are leading the representative action on behalf of 272 affected users.

The amount claimed reflects the value of their assets on the platform as recorded in the filings or at the time they attempted to withdraw them.

Their lawsuit follows findings by court-appointed interim judicial managers, who reported that AmazingTech, the company behind Tokenize Xchange, owed customers about S$266.3 million while holding only S$2.6 million in realisable assets.

The claimants allege that the missing S$263.7 million was wrongfully taken by Hong and Koo.

Lawyer Suresh Divyanathan of Dauntless Law Chambers told The Straits Times that many customers were shocked to learn that less than 1 percent of their combined assets remained.

He said a representative action was the only viable option for the group to pursue recovery, as individual suits would be too costly.

Court records show that the defendants have yet to respond.

They must notify the court by 8 December if they intend to contest the claims and file a defence by 15 December if they proceed.

Hong’s lawyer said a response will be submitted in due course.

Tokenize Xchange’s collapse began when the Monetary Authority of Singapore rejected its application to operate as a licensed digital payment token provider.

The exchange, which had been operating under a temporary exemption, announced on 20 July that it was shutting down.

It later told The Straits Times that it planned to relocate to Labuan in Malaysia and seek regulatory approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market.

The company had previously raised US$11.5 million in Series A funding in 2024, before its financial troubles came to light.

On 1 August, MAS and the police’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.

Hong was separately charged in court on 31 July under the same act. AmazingTech was placed under interim judicial management on Aug 15 and ordered wound up on 30 September.

The company’s own token has fallen sharply, dropping more than 80 percent since July 20 and more than 90 percent since the start of the year. It now trades at about S$1.70.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by fabrikasimf via Freepik