The Defiant

​​Nexo To Acquire Competing Crypto Lender Vauld

“We've signed an indicative term sheet with Nexo to acquire up to 100% of Vauld,” co-founder Darshan Bathija tweeted early Tuesday.

By: Aleksandar Gilbert Loading...

​​Nexo To Acquire Competing Crypto Lender Vauld

Just one day after suspending customer withdrawals, Singapore-based crypto lending firm Vauld has struck a deal to be acquired by rival company Nexo.

“We’ve signed an indicative term sheet with @Nexo to acquire up to 100% of Vauld,” Vauld co-founder Darshan Bathija tweeted early Tuesday. “The completion of this transaction is pending due diligence – which both teams are working on as we speak.”

In a statement, Nexo said the move was “aimed at the betterment of the space, as well as the strengthening of our presence in Southeast Asia.”

Vauld had raised $27M from investors as of Tuesday, according to data from Crunchbase. Earlier this year, Bathija said Vauld had $1B in assets under management and a million customers.

Nexo has raised more than $50M and its NEXO token has a market capitalization of $337M, down 70% from $1.2B just two months ago.

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Withdrawals Suspended

On Monday, Vauld became the latest crypto lending firm to announce that it would suspend customer withdrawals in an attempt to fend off financial ruin, citing “volatile market conditions” triggered by the collapse of Terra’s UST stablecoin, Celsius’ withdrawal freeze and the implosion of Three Arrows Capital.

Customers had withdrawn almost $200M in assets from Vauld since June 12, the company said. In addition to the withdrawal freeze, Vauld has engaged legal and financial advisors about a possible restructuring, it said.

“Specific arrangements will be made for customer deposits as may be necessary for certain customers to meet margin calls,” Vauld tweeted.

Market Stress

Last week, publicly-traded crypto firm Voyager Digital also paused withdrawals. Voyager has issued a notice of default to Three Arrows for the hedge fund’s failure to repay a $700M loan, and cited its exposure to Three Arrows as a factor in the decision to pause withdrawals. Its stock is down 88% in the past month.

CoinLoan, another crypto lender, announced on Monday that it would temporarily lower its 24-hour withdrawal limit to $5,000 from $500,000, despite insisting it was “probably the only company unaffected by the controversies of stETH, Luna/UST, Three Arrows Capital, and DeFi protocol issues.”

“From a business perspective, halting all withdrawals, like some other companies have done, would be more convenient,” CoinLoan said in a blog post announcing the change. “We understand that some of you may be storing your life savings on CoinLoan, so we cannot simply disable withdrawals.”

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