Crypto trading and lending platform Vauld stops customer withdrawals, trading, and deposits

Cryptocurrency exchange Vauld on Monday announced to suspend all withdrawals, trading and deposits on its platform with immediate effect owing to "financial challenges".

Darshan Bathija, CEO of Vauld, said that a significant amount of customer withdrawals in excess of $197.7 million has happened since June 12, when the decline of the cryptocurrency market was triggered by the collapse of Terraform Lab's UST stablecoin, Celsius network pausing withdrawals, and Three Arrows Capital defaulting on their loans.

"In furtherance of this, we have engaged the services of Kroll Pte Limited as our financial advisor, as well as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP as our legal advisors in India and Singapore, respectively," said Bathija.

The cryptocurrency exchange last month reduced its headcount by about 30 per cent amid volatile market conditions.

Bathija said the company is currently in discussions with potential investors into the Vauld group of companies.

"We intend to apply to the Singapore courts for a moratorium i.e. a suspension of the commencement or continuation of any proceedings against the relevant companies so as to give us breathing space to carry out the proposed restructuring exercise," he informed.

The company said that specific arrangements will be made for customer deposits as may be necessary for certain customers to meet margin calls in connection with collateralised loans.

Vauld has already reduced its marketing expenses, slowed down hiring efforts, reduced executive compensation by 50 per cent and paused most vendor engagements.

Founded in 2018, the Singapore-registered startup raised $27 million and aimed to reach one million users in the US, followed by Europe, Singapore and India.

Earlier this month, cryptocurrency broker Voyager Digital suspended all trading, deposits withdrawals and loyalty rewards, as top crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) filed for bankruptcy in the US, in which Voyager has made significant investments.

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has laid off 2,000 employees while global crypto exchanges and firms including Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com and others announced to downsize their workforce.

Cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius has laid off 150 employees which is a quarter of its workforce, as the global crypto market goes through its worst meltdown.

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