Singapore-based crypto lender Hodlnaut halted withdrawals on August 8, 2022, after suffering losses of about US$190 million from the Terra ecosystem collapse, trapping funds of more than 17,000 users. The company was wound up in November 2023, and co-founder Zhu Juntao was charged with fraud in 2026.
Founded in April 2019 by Zhu Juntao and Simon Eric Lee, Hodlnaut let users deposit bitcoin, ether and stablecoins to earn interest, generating returns by lending deposits to institutions and deploying them into yield products. Court filings later showed the company had suffered losses of approximately US$190 million tied to the implosion of TerraUSD in May 2022, leaving it unable to meet obligations to depositors. It also had about US$13 million stuck on FTX when that exchange collapsed that November.
Blaming recent market conditions, the company said the halt was needed to stabilise liquidity and preserve assets. It simultaneously withdrew its application for a digital payment token licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, for which it had received in-principle approval months earlier. MAS rescinded the approval at the company's request and reminded the public that licensed crypto firms were not subject to capital requirements or required to safeguard customer funds against insolvency.
Hodlnaut was placed under interim judicial management later in August 2022. Creditors, who included more than 17,000 platform users as well as institutional names such as the Algorand Foundation, rejected restructuring proposals, and on November 10, 2023, the High Court ordered the company to be wound up. EY partners who had served as interim judicial managers were appointed liquidators. Net liabilities were assessed at roughly S$92 million, meaning users were unlikely to recover anywhere near the full value of their deposits.
The saga took a criminal turn on May 26, 2026, when Zhu was charged with six counts of fraud by false representation. He pleaded not guilty. Each charge carries up to 20 years' imprisonment.
Hodlnaut's failure, alongside those of Three Arrows Capital and Vauld, shattered Singapore's image as a safe harbour for crypto and accelerated MAS's move toward much stricter retail investor protections for digital assets.
Hodlnaut had received in-principle approval for its MAS licence in March 2022, a milestone it touted to users. Withdrawing the application five months later was a stark signal of how far the company had fallen. The firm said it was consulting law firm Damodara Ong LLC on a recovery plan.
Among the creditors were the Algorand Foundation, which disclosed about US$35 million in exposure, along with Samtrade Custodian and S.A.M. Fintech. When restructuring talks collapsed, interim judicial managers Aaron Loh Cheng Lee and Angela Ee of EY announced the November 2023 liquidation, telling users their funds had been frozen since August 2022.