HVA shares plunge over 80% as chairman arrested, wiping out market value

Shares of HVA Group tumbled sharply on Friday morning, losing more than 80% from their peak and wiping out hundreds of billions of dong in market value (VND100 billion = $3.8 million), after authorities arrested senior executives linked to the company.

The stock, registered on the unlisted public companies market (UPCom) as HVA, fell to its floor price of VND5,800 ($0.22) apiece on Friday morning, marking its fourth consecutive limit-down session since March 20, with no buyers and a sell surplus of more than 26,600 shares.

The decline followed news that Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security's investigative agency had detained Vuong Le Vinh Nhan, chairman of HVA Group, along with Tran Quang Chien, technical manager of the ONUS cryptocurrency exchange, and Ngo Thi Phuong Thao, director of HanaGold Jewelry and Gemstones JSC, over alleged fraud involving digital asset platforms.

Since its peak of VND29,600 ($1.12) per share in late August 2025 - when the company was preparing to launch the DNEX digital asset exchange - HVA Group’s stock has lost more than 80% of its value, equivalent to a drop of about VND324.8 billion ($12.33 million) in market capitalization.

The sell-off had already begun after users reported disruptions at cryptocurrency platform ONUS and online gold trading platform HanaGold, including inability to access accounts and withdraw funds. Both platforms are closely linked to HVA Group and its chairman.

HVA Group maintains business cooperation agreements with OnusChain, an ecosystem including the ONUS platform, and HanaGold.

Separately, the company’s own HVA application has experienced outages. In a statement on its official Facebook page, HVA Group said disruptions were caused by a cloud service provider suspending services, affecting transactions, deposits and withdrawals. The company warned the application could become fully inaccessible in the near term.

In an earlier notice, HVA Group said certain equipment had been temporarily seized by authorities for investigation, preventing withdrawal functions from operating.

As leadership and operational uncertainties mount, HVA Group is scheduled to hold its AGM on March 31 in Can Tho city.

Data collected by The Investor shows that as of August 2025, HVA Group had a total of 505 shareholders. The five largest shareholders collectively held nearly 70% of the company’s equity, including Jade Labs Pte. Ltd (24.29%), chairman Vuong Le Vinh Nhan (15.71%), Tran Quang Chien (7.33%), Metacare Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (9.59%), and LiveTrade JSC (12.8%).