Hodlnaut laid off about 40 employees, 80 percent of its staff, in a blog post dated August 19, 20221. About 40 people lost their jobs. “Since we halted withdrawals, we have also laid off 80% of our employees (being approximately 40 employees), in order to reduce the company's expenditure,” the Singapore lender wrote. The cuts came with Hodlnaut's application for judicial management. That court status was meant to protect the company's bitcoin and ether from a forced sale at 2022's depressed prices.
11 rounds of layoffs on the record in 2022
Rounds of layoffs CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2022: 11
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2020 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 |
| 2022 | 11 |
| 2023 | 12 |
| 2024 | 6 |
| 2025 | 5 |
| 2026 | 18 |
Trading Venues & Brokerage led rounds of layoffs in 2022, with three
Rounds of layoffs CryptoLately has verified in 2022, by the sector of the company
- Capital Markets & Treasury: 1
- Trading Venues & Brokerage, Wallets & Consumer Apps, Stablecoins & Payments
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Trading Venues & Brokerage | 3 |
| Wallets & Consumer Apps | 1 |
| Capital Markets & Treasury | 1 |
| Stablecoins & Payments | 1 |
The move
Hodlnaut explained the layoffs as part of a wider liquidity push. The lender would drop its open-term interest rate to 0 percent on August 22, 2022, the same post said1. CoinDesk also reported a pending police case against Hodlnaut on August 19, 2022, apart from the court filing2. The outlet called the rate cut an attempt to stabilize liquidity. Hodlnaut kept only the staff it needed for "key functions," its own post said.
What the losses traced to
Hodlnaut named several causes in its own post. A Hong Kong subsidiary had lost money in the TerraUSD crash1. Withdrawal volumes ran high, crypto prices had fallen from their 2021 peaks, and a few users held large deposits, the post said. CoinDesk placed Hodlnaut on a longer 2022 list that also named hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and lenders Voyager Digital and Celsius Network2. A Singapore court was set to hear Hodlnaut's judicial management plea on Monday, August 22, 2022, CoinDesk reported.
What came next
Hodlnaut's bid for judicial management ended in liquidation. Creditors rejected Hodlnaut's restructuring plan in January 2023, preferring liquidation instead3. Judicial managers Aaron Lee and Angela Ee filed a winding-up order on November 10, 2023, The Block reported. Algorand Foundation, one of those creditors, had argued in a filing that liquidation would "maximize the company's remaining assets available for distribution," The Block reported, citing Bloomberg. By then, Hodlnaut held more than $13 million stuck in the collapsed FTX exchange and had lost $189.7 million in the Terra-linked Anchor Protocol, The Block reported.
Sources
- Hodlnaut, "An update on our Interim Judicial Management / Judicial Management process," Hodlnaut, August 19, 2022, https://www.hodlnaut.com/press/an-update-on-our-ijm-process
- Danny Nelson, "Crypto Lender Hodlnaut Faces Singapore Police 'Actions' and Job Cuts," CoinDesk, August 19, 2022, https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/08/19/crypto-lender-hodlnaut-faces-singapore-police-actions-and-staggering-job-cuts
- Anna Baydakova, "Distressed crypto lender Hodlnaut starts liquidation in Singapore," The Block, November 10, 2023, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMivgFBVV95cUxQZ0hFVlhIQnpPVFdsM3BNZEFTaWV2eHVPTE9FdVJvd2xIc2Y1OXd3TGlNM1hTQXY0ZTdPcTNwNjdHOGR2V0NfT0hvdTZXMnBydDhyWFQ1ajVaLWU4R0RfeDRxYlR4NFdoa1ZhMnpRLVQ1QXpyNmRrYzBRYl95MktFa0l2aWNDUHk0WWI1QTNiYTJ6U1ktTHEyOWY4cFViZXVZU3VOeGxaakM5WnhoZmFZZ05ocGVxNlR3WkZ4Nnh3