Darshan Bathija News

Vauld, a Singapore-based crypto exchange that has been in ongoing bankruptcy proceedings since August 2022, has said that it had received permission from the court to restructure its board. The new top management will lead the company’s bailout process. 

Following its last hearing, cryptocurrency lending platform Vauld reached out to its customers seeking their interest to be a part of a proposed Committee of Creditors (CoC), to whom it owes money.

A Singapore court on August 1, granted a three-month moratorium to cryptocurrency lending start-up Vauld till November 7, 2022. Following demand letters from a few creditors, the judge further gave a deadline of four weeks to the company to explore mechanisms for withdrawal for creditors in need.

Singapore-based crypto lender Vauld may get acquired by major crypto lender Nexo (NEXO).

Vauld has suspended all deposits and withdrawals. The decision comes amid a broader volatility in the cryptocurrency market and as the platform faces financial challenges. Vauld is looking at a potential restructuring. “This is due to a combination of circumstances such as the volatile market conditions, the financial difficulties of our key business partners inevitably affecting us, and the current market climate,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Darshan Bathija in a statement on the company’s website on Monday. “All this has led to a significant amount of customer withdrawals over $197.7 million since June 12, when the decline of the cryptocurrency market was triggered by the collapse of Terraform Lab’s UST stablecoin, Celsius network pausing withdrawals, and Three Arrows Capital defaulting on their loans.”

Singapore-based crypto exchange Vauld is the latest crypto platform to suspend all withdrawals, deposits, and trading citing "financial challenges" amid lingering sour market conditions.

Ethereum continued to remain under pressure on Friday, with the second-largest crypto asset registering double-digit cuts in the last 24 hours. While Ethereum saw some recovery and trimmed the losses, it continued to trade lower along with other altcoins. At 14.40 hours IST on Friday, Ethereum was down about 4 per cent at near the $1,750 mark. According to the data from Coinmarketcap, the total market capitalization of the second largest cryptocurrency dropped to $213.65 billion.

According to minutes of their last meeting, released Wednesday, US Federal Reserve officials indicated that they would have to raise interest rates by 0.5 per cent in each of their next two meetings. Barring stablecoins Tether and Tron, major crypto tokens were trading lower on Thursday. Avalanche tanked over 5 per cent, followed by a 4 per cent drop in Solana and Polkadot each. Ethereum shed 3 per cent.

Bitcoin's dominance is at a one-year high but traders are looking more interested in other altcoins. However, the markets, overall, remained range bound. Bitcoin outperformed the majority of the altcoins, holding about $30,000 mark. However, market experts said that Bitcoin is in a danger zone as the sentiment for risky assets have taken off. Crypto tokens were trading with mixed cues on Wednesday. Tron rallied over 6 per cent, whereas Bitcoin and BNB gained 3 per cent each. Polkadot, Avalanche and Shiba Inu were among the top losers.

investments, crypto platforms are introducing new products. They are looking to earn interest on their crypto deposits or draw loans against cryptocurrencies, without attracting the new tax. The Budget proposed a 30% tax on returns from digital currencies and a 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on digital assets. The government has not used the term «cryptocurrency» in the budget, but rather «virtual digital assets». This means there will not be any tax on crypto-based products, investors said. «The way the regulations are today, investors who invest in crypto-based products should not be covered either under the 1% TDS, or 30% tax on income. However, we have sought clarity on this from the government and will be approaching them in this regard,» said Darshan Bathija, cofounder of Vauld, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange. Crypto platform executives say if there is no tax incidence on crypto-based products, it could lead to greater demand from investors. «It (tax) will increase our operations as people will prefer to take out a loan on their crypto holding, instead of selling it to avoid the tax implications,» said Kumar Gaurav, founder and CEO of Cashaa.