Deep Dive: Hodlnaut’s mismanagement and lies

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At the start of 2022, crypto firm Hodlnaut had the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and close to US$1 billion in assets under management.

Today, the Singapore-based company has halted its operations, faces lawsuits over allegations of dishonesty, and is being probed by the city-state’s police force.

Zhu Juntao, CEO and co-founder of Hodlnaut / Photo credit: Hodlnaut

On this episode of Deep Dive, Tech in Asia journalist Scott Shuey discusses how the collapse of other crypto firms sparked Hodlnaut’s downfall, the alleged mismanagement and lies that exacerbated the situation, and what’s in store for the company’s future.

Timecodes:

00:00 – Intro music
00:47 – Today’s topic: What happened to Hodlnaut?
01:46 – Who is Hodlnaut?
04:34 – Appearing to be a respectable, relatively stable up-and-comer
05:45 – Putting money where they weren’t supposed to
07:15 – Denial of exposure from UST and Terra’s crash
09:41 – The impact – or lack of it – on Hodlnaut’s business
11:51 – The reality of how bad the situation was
13:25 – Laying off everyone but a skeleton crew
14:22 – Court drama between Hodlnaut and Ernst & Young
16:26 – Allegations of dishonesty and hiding financial documents
17:48 – The FTX debacle: A nail in Hodlnaut’s coffin
19:47 – A probe by the Singapore police
21:21 – What’s next for Hodlnaut?

Featured reporter:

• Scott Shuey, a Tech in Asia journalist based in Kuala Lumpur

Essential reading:

• Hodlnaut may have had $187m exposure to Terra collapse
• UST, lies, and Hodlnaut: How a rising star fell back to earth
• Hodlnaut can’t pay salaries, benefits for dismissed employees
• Hodlnaut accuses EY staff of dishonesty; EY fires back
• Hodlnaut founders hid financial documents, new Singapore court report says
• Hodlnaut assets hit by FTX debacle

For more stories on Hodlnaut, click here.