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“A slow motion train wreck running into a dumpster fire that’s full of black swans.”
That was the ominous warning from Scott Melker, a self-confessed crypto advocate and host of the Wolf Of All Streets Podcast, on the current state of the crypto market. He made the remark after FTX, one of the world’s largest exchanges, went bankrupt.
Even by crypto standards, where soaring highs and plummeting lows appear to be the norm, FTX’s downfall has unraveled in spectacular fashion.
In a matter of days, the company went from nearly being acquired by peer Binance to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and replacing founder Sam Bankman-Fried as CEO.
While the once-celebrated FTX is likely the highest-profile victim of the crypto winter, perhaps one of the black swans caught in the dumpster fire in Melker’s analogy is troubled crypto lender Hodlnaut (along with Three Arrows Capital, Babel Finance, and Celsius).
Hodlnaut is already under judicial protection and likely to face further losses due to its exposure to FTX and its native token, FTT.
Today we look at:
- How the FTX debacle affects Hodlnaut
- Funds drying up for Southeast Asia’s startups
- Other newsy highlights such as GoTo letting go of 10% of its workforce and ASEAN central banks looking to boost cross-border payments.
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A taste of its own medicine
Image credit: Timmy Loen
The collapse of the Terra blockchain protocol in May led Hodlnaut to halt withdrawals in August.
The embattled Singapore-based company, which is currently fighting for control with its current interim judicial manager, Ernst & Young, finds itself in an even deeper fix after FTX, in which Hodlnaut had about US$13.2 million in assets as of October 27, suspended all non-fiat withdrawals last week.
Funds dry up
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