Hodlnaut Puts Its Customers in Permanent Hodl Mode

CeFi platform Hodlnaut paused withdrawals and token transfers. It had $500M under management, but now it appears to be insolvent.

Hodl Deez Nauts: Hodlnaut Pauses Withdrawals
Hodlnaut's instructions to investors

Hodlnaut announced in a blog post this morning that it has paused withdrawals and token transfers. The Singapore-based CeFi platform had $500M under management, but now it appears to be insolvent.

Celsius, BlockFi, Stablegains, and the other dead CeFi platforms this year all had exposure to Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and/or Terra/UST. When Terra collapsed, it brought down 3AC, which in turn brought down dozens of CeFi platforms.

Hodlnaut claimed it had no exposure to Terra, but according to WatcherGuru, Hodlnaut actually held $187M in UST before the Terra collapse. Obviously, a company with $500M AUM can't recover from a $180M+ loss. What's curious is that Hodlnaut managed to hide its insolvency for months longer than other broke CeFi platforms.

Naturally, Hodlnaut is citing "current market conditions" as the reason it's keeping everyone's money. But last I checked, the crypto market looked pretty good. All the other scammers died months ago, so how did Hodlnaut manage to hold on for so long?

Chart showing crypto's total market cap increased from $875 billion to $1.15 trillion in five weeks
Total crypto market cap chart that shows the "current market conditions" that wiped out Hodlnaut. Source: CoinMarketCap

Hodlnaut was previously approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a digital payment token service provider. They have since withdrawn the license for their "token swap" feature and "will also cease all borrowing and lending services."

So for now, Hodlnaut is just a company that's holding onto investor cash while it waits to see what Singapore will do.

Hodlnaut's next update will be on August 19. For now, users are still able to access their accounts and view their balances (ha!). There is no timeline or plan in place for paying back investors.