Kituuma Rusoke
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I For months, it appeared to be the kind of investment opportunity many Ugandans had been waiting for — an online venture promising quick and substantial returns from cryptocurrency mining and artificial intelligence.
Students, businessmen and ordinary citizens joined WhatsApp groups, deposited money through mobile money numbers and rented virtual mining machines, watching their accounts accumulate profits.
Then, on the night of August 12, the money disappeared.
The website and application used by the scheme went offline at about 9pm, leaving hundreds, and potentially thousands, of Ugandan investors unable to access their accounts or withdraw savings that, in some cases, ran into millions of shillings.
The collapse of what investors knew as Future AI Hub, allegedly operating under the name HUT8, has raised fresh questions about Uganda’s preparedness to protect citizens from increasingly sophisticated online investment scams — and whether those who lost money will ever recover it.
The scheme had reportedly been operating in Uganda since 2023, presenting itself as affiliated with a Canadian-based digital assets and blockchain company founded in 2017.
But Uganda Registration Services Bureau records reportedly did not show HUT8 as a registered company in Uganda.
That distinction became critical after the collapse.
On Tuesday, August 11, the genuine Hut 8, a North American energy infrastructure and digital computing company, issued a warning distancing itself from the Ugandan operation.
The company said it had no official corporate office, physical data centre or local subsidiary in Uganda.
“We have received reports of scammers falsely claiming to represent Hut 8 and soliciting investments in Uganda,” the company said.
It added that it had “no operations or authorised representatives soliciting investments in Uganda” and did not solicit investments through WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook groups, direct messages or local agents.
The warning came just a day before Ugandan investors lost access to the platform. By then, however, many had already committed their savings.
The promise that attracted investors
The operation presented itself as a cloud-based cryptocurrency mining business in which users could virtually rent artificial intelligence-powered mining machines.
According to the prospectus circulated to investors, after renting a mining unit, users would receive 10 hours of daily mining output, while HUT8 retained the remaining 14 hours as its profit.
The apparent simplicity of the arrangement attracted people who might otherwise never have ventured into the cryptocurrency market.
One investor, for example, reportedly put more than Shs18 million into different virtual mining machines and expected returns exceeding Shs53 million.
For a 50-year-old Kampala resident, the investment represented a significant financial gamble.
But his case was only one among numerous Ugandans in Mayuge, Kasese and northern Uganda who had put money into the platform. In Mayuge, the scheme had even penetrated secondary schools.
A Senior Four student, identified as Ernest, said he and more than 120 fellow students had been trading through the platform.
He had invested Shs112,000 and received Shs600,000 in returns in August. His confidence came from another student who had reportedly invested Shs180,000 and made about Shs2 million.
“Last year when I was in Senior Three, there is a boarding student who received the HUT8 link. He joined and invested some money from which he was able to get profits and cover his school fees,” Ernest said.
The success stories became powerful marketing tools. Students shared links with friends. Investors posted evidence of withdrawals. Profits were reinvested.
The cycle created an impression that the platform was legitimate and that anyone willing to invest could make money.
When the money vanished
The signs of trouble emerged before the shutdown. Investors were reportedly being pressured to deposit more money or risk having their accounts deleted. Yet the prospect of losing access to accumulated profits encouraged some to continue investing. Then came August 12.
The platform went dark.
Investors who had been watching balances grow could no longer access their accounts. Even people who had invested as little as Shs50,000 reportedly saw large figures displayed in their accounts, but those balances suddenly became inaccessible.
The psychological effect was devastating. For months, investors had been told to wait for particular withdrawal periods. Some anticipated receiving substantial payouts and were even looking forward to a grand HUT8 celebration reportedly planned at Speke Resort Munyonyo later in August.
Instead, they were left with unanswered questions. The HUT8-Official Group-495 WhatsApp community had 841 members by the end of July, including 832 verified Ugandans.
Even if each of those members had invested an average of Shs75,000 in the HUT8 S1 AI mining machine over three rounds, the total would have been about Shs87.2 million.
But that group represented only a fraction of Ugandans who had reportedly used the platform. The actual amount lost could therefore be considerably higher.
An investment system outside normal safeguards
One of the major concerns raised by the case is that the operation appeared to function outside the conventional safeguards associated with regulated investment businesses.
Denis Kizito, director of market supervision at the Capital Markets Authority, warned Ugandans about investment opportunities being used to lure unsuspecting people. He noted that HUT8 was not directly supervised by the CMA.
Unlike regulated investments, where transactions generally pass through licensed financial intermediaries, the HUT8 operation reportedly relied on mobile-money handlers.
Deposits were made through various MTN-registered numbers, with investors participating in different payment cycles.
The platform reportedly also charged an 8% service fee per transaction — considerably higher than the roughly 2.1% commission cited for some transactions involving Uganda Securities Exchange brokers.
Several people whose numbers were reportedly used to receive deposits could not be reached when contacted.
The main administrator, identified as “Stine”, also became unreachable.
She had previously used the official WhatsApp community to issue instructions and provide what she called “today’s most critical meeting”.
With the administrators now silent, investors have been left wondering who controlled their money and where it went.
Police waiting for complaints
Despite the scale of the apparent losses, Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke said police had not yet received a formal complaint. He acknowledged that authorities were aware of complaints circulating on social media.
“We are appealing to the aggrieved persons to formally register a complaint with any of our police stations. Once we receive it, we shall start our investigations,” Rusoke said.
That appeal places an important responsibility on victims. Social-media complaints may draw public attention, but they do not automatically trigger a formal criminal investigation.
For investigators to trace the money, identify the people behind the operation and determine whether assets can be recovered, affected investors will likely need to document their deposits, withdrawal attempts, account details, phone numbers, messages and other evidence.
The possibility of recovering the money, however, remains uncertain. If the operators are outside Uganda, if the money was quickly transferred elsewhere or if false identities and accounts were used, tracing and recovering the funds could prove difficult.
HUT8 joins a growing list of investment failures
The collapse is also part of a disturbing pattern. Earlier in August, Ugandans complained about another online investment platform known as Fidelity, which was associated online with FCIG-Yepbit.
Users said they could no longer access accounts, withdraw funds or obtain responses from administrators.
Online promoters who had encouraged people to join subsequently faced angry reactions from followers. The country has also witnessed the collapse of other schemes. Following the Capital Chicken fallout, Vetaplan Chicken, another poultry investment scheme, collapsed after reportedly collecting more than Shs758 million from investors.
The recurring pattern is striking: attractive returns, aggressive recruitment, early withdrawals that build confidence, increased investment and, eventually, disappearance.
The painful lesson
For many Ugandans caught in the HUT8 collapse, the greatest tragedy may not simply be the money already lost, but the possibility that the savings may never be recovered. Some investors used school fees, business capital or family savings.
Others were young people who had been attracted by stories of peers transforming small deposits into millions.
The experience exposes the danger of confusing early withdrawals with proof of a legitimate business model.
It also demonstrates how WhatsApp communities and social-media promoters can create powerful networks of trust without providing the legal protections associated with regulated financial institutions.
For now, victims wait for answers.
The police want formal complaints. The CMA is warning investors. The genuine Hut 8 has distanced itself from the Ugandan operation.
But for those whose savings disappeared when the screens went dark on August 12, the most difficult question remains unanswered: Will they ever see their money again?
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