New leadership, old problems as Vauld struggles to repay creditors

On October 12, DeFi Payments—the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Vauld—held a town hall to assuage the fears of Vauld’s long-suffering creditors. These creditors—Vauld’s erstwhile users—lost access to their deposits in July 2022, when the Singapore-based exchange suspended withdrawals in the face of mounting liabilities amidst a wider crypto winter.

Before its ultimate collapse, Vauld was one of the bigger players when it came to borrowing, lending, and trading cryptocurrencies. It raised $25 million in a round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, and counted the likes of Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, CMT Digital, Gumi Cryptos, Robert Leshner, and Cadenza Capital among its backers. 

The town hall was meant to signal a stop to Vauld’s downward spiral. Having stepped down on September 27, the company’s co-founders—Darshan Bathija and Sanju Sony Kurian—were replaced with a new board, which will take charge of Vauld’s ongoing restructuring and facilitate the return of funds to creditors.