Zhu Juntao, co-founder and former Chief Government Officer of the now-defunct Singapore-based crypto lending platform Hodlnaut, was charged in a Singapore courtroom on Could 26, 2026 with fraud by false illustration — practically 4 years after the Terra/LUNA ecosystem implosion triggered a $193 million monetary shortfall that finally ended the platform and stranded greater than 30,000 customers worldwide.
The costs have been introduced by the Industrial Affairs Division of the Singapore Police Pressure, which has been investigating Hodlnaut and its administrators since November 2022. Zhu, 36, faces six counts in whole — three beneath Part 424A(1)(a) learn with Part 424A(3) of Singapore’s Penal Code 1871, and three beneath the identical provision learn along with Part 109 of the identical code, which covers abetment. If convicted on every cost, he faces imprisonment of as much as 20 years, a high quality, or each, per the police assertion.
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What The Costs Allege
The fraud costs middle on a particular window: Could to July 2022, the weeks instantly following TerraUSD’s catastrophic de-pegging in early Could of that 12 months. In accordance with the Singapore Police Pressure’s official assertion, Zhu allegedly directed Hodlnaut staff to make deceptive statements on the corporate’s official Telegram group and in emails despatched on to customers — assertions that Hodlnaut had no direct publicity to UST and had not suffered losses from the collapse.
The statements, as documented in Mothership SG’s reporting of courtroom filings, included a publish during which Hodlnaut wrote that it had “not taken any losses as a agency” and that solely customers who personally held UST have been affected. Zhu additionally allegedly directed a separate worker to electronic mail 30 recipients stating the corporate had assumed no losses. These statements, prosecutors now allege, have been false and meant to deceive customers throughout probably the most vital interval of the platform’s deterioration.
What Truly Occurred With Terra
The judicial document that emerged after Hodlnaut suspended withdrawals in August 2022 instructed a starkly totally different story. An interim judicial managers’ report seen by Bloomberg discovered that Hodlnaut had misplaced practically $190 million via its publicity to the collapsed Terra ecosystem — a determine the platform had actively downplayed to customers whereas the losses accrued. On-chain analytics corporations subsequently confirmed materials publicity to UST and TerraForm Labs-linked exercise that Hodlnaut had not beforehand acknowledged.
Courtroom paperwork filed in Singapore in August 2022, when the platform sought creditor safety, disclosed a $193 million monetary shortfall. Courtroom-appointed managers later confirmed a further $13.1 million in person belongings have been stranded on the collapsed FTX trade.
Hodlnaut was subsequently ordered to liquidate by Singapore’s Excessive Courtroom, with EY companions appointed as joint liquidators. Zhu indicated he was not responsible and disputed all costs at his Could 26 listening to — a pre-trial convention has been scheduled for June 2026, per Channel Information Asia.
This improvement marks a major second for the nascent sector’s long-running accountability reckoning following the 2022 crypto contagion. The Terra collapse set off a series of platform failures — Celsius, Voyager, Three Arrows Capital, and ultimately FTX amongst them — that collectively price retail customers tons of of billions of {dollars}.
That 4 years have elapsed between Hodlnaut’s collapse and its former CEO’s first day in courtroom is itself a mirrored image of how slowly the authorized system processes crypto’s most consequential failures — and a reminder that the instances are removed from closed.
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