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Hi there,
This week’s newsletter will be short, as we’re flying home from Tech in Asia’s Bali offsite. A few of us are also recovering from Bali Belly, which I didn’t know was a synonym for traveler’s diarrhea.
What I do know is that there’s a thriving crypto community in Bali, and this hit home for me when one of my colleagues spotted a Bitcoin-themed cafe on the island.
Image credit: Tech in Asia
But enough about Bali (though I’m reminiscing about its beaches as I write this).
News broke this week that Singapore-based crypto lender Hodlnaut is halting its services, including deposits and withdrawals.
Some time ago, my colleague, Scott Shuey, gave a thorough look into what might have gone wrong at Hodlnaut – it’s worth a read.
The crypto platform’s CEO, Juntao Zhu, has ignored our queries, threatened to sue a critic on Twitter, and made a whole bunch of denials online. And then this development happened, which made us wonder: What is it hiding?
Since its announcement, Singapore’s central bank has withdrawn its in-principle approval of the platform and forbidden the company from conducting regulated activities.
In the meantime, critics are citing Hodlnaut as another example of crypto’s extreme risks.
On the flip side, proponents argue that premier DeFi (decentralized finance) protocols have held up well despite the collapse of many of their centralized counterparts.
I’m a bit more sympathetic to the view of advocates, but I’ll add that DeFi protocols are still susceptible to network congestion and hacks. I’m no engineer, but these problems do seem solvable.
In any case, the drama at Hodlnaut hasn’t ended yet. The company has promised an update on August 19 – we’ll be sure to track what it says.
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