Singapore-based crypto platform halts withdrawals, deposits, and token swaps, citing market volatility, and joins the lengthy listing of crypto platforms going bust. 

Hodlnaut stated in an announcement “we have now since knowledgeable the MAS (Financial Authority of Singapore) of our intention to withdraw our licence software. Hodlnaut is due to this fact not offering regulated digital cost token (DPT) providers, i.e., our token swap characteristic. For the avoidance of doubt, Hodlnaut may also stop all borrowing and lending providers.” Hodlnaut’s withdrawal pause follows firms like Celsius, Voyager Digital, Babel Finance, and Vauld freezing withdrawals.

For the reason that announcement, Hodlnaut CEO Juntao Zhu has turned his Twitter account non-public. The corporate additionally has disabled its Fb, Discord, and Reddit pages. The corporate stated it’s consulting with Damodara Ong LLC, and dealing on an execution and restoration plan for the very best pursuits of its customers. It’s anticipated to provide an replace on its restoration plan on August 19. 

Hodlnaut’s LinkedIn web page nonetheless exhibits $500 million of belongings underneath administration, and the corporate has assured clients that it’ll nonetheless present curiosity on their deposits. 

In a 2021 weblog put up, the agency claimed that it built-in “iTrust insure” into its platform, giving customers the chance entry to Nexus Mutual custody cowl. 

In accordance with the corporate, the person who bought the custody insurance coverage will obtain the equal of their funds in Ethereum (ETH) or DAI tokens if the withdrawals from the custodian wallets are halted for greater than 90 days.

Hodlnaut’s issues began with the collapse of TeraLuna crypto and the Singapore-based cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrow Capital. 

Earlier than Hodlnaut froze withdrawals, Terra whistleblower Fatman warned customers concerning the platform, emphasising that “these web sites will not be as reliable as chances are you’ll suppose.” 

Fatman described how Hodlnaut included Terra’s UST and LUNA (previously often called traditional cash) with excessive annual proportion yields (APY). 

The whistleblower defined that Hodlnaut assured the general public it had no publicity to Anchor. However when Terra collapsed on Could 9, the platform briefly banned LUNA and UST trades.

They bought some UST as little as $0.40, degen shorted by means of bETH cross-margining, had enormous, dangerous shorts on exchanges in the very best case state of affairs, and in a hilarious transfer of courageous defiance, they even re-entered Anchor after the collapse (small dimension). https://t.co/yfbTET4U4n (15/25)

— FatMan (@FatManTerra) June 26, 2022

The whistleblower additionally despatched an e mail to the Financial Authority of Singapore (MAS) in June. He stated: “I did not consider it was smart for Singaporean authorities to provide Hodlnaut any semblance of legitimacy”