According to CoinDesk, Australia's Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones has expressed concern over the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC) failure to warn consumers about the HyperVerse crypto scheme. Other nations, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, and Hungary, issued warnings about the scheme as early as 2021. Jones stated that such schemes work by convincing innocent people to invest their money into a product that might not exist, with the only source of income being money from new investors.
The HyperVerse crypto scheme, run by an entity called HyperTech, resulted in thousands of people losing millions of dollars, according to a Guardian Australia investigation last month. The scheme was promoted and run by CEO Steven Reece Lewis, who does not appear to exist. The founders of HyperTech, Australian entrepreneur Sam Lee and his business partner Ryan Xu, also founded the collapsed Australian bitcoin company Blockchain Global, which owes creditors $58 million. Although liquidators alerted ASIC about Lee and Xu for breaking the law, the regulator said it does not intend to take action at this time, the Guardian reported. ASIC did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment, and HyperTech could not be reached for comment.