Singapore authorities have charged Zhu Juntao, the former CEO of crypto lending platform Hodlnaut, with fraud over allegedly misleading statements about the company's exposure to the 2022 TerraUSD collapse. According to a police statement released Tuesday, Zhu was charged in court with six offenses for allegedly distributing misleading statements through the company's official channels. The charges stem from claims made during the height of the crypto market crisis that affected the entire industry. Zhu pleaded not guilty to all six charges at his May 26 hearing, with a pre-trial conference scheduled for June 2026, as reported by Channel News Asia.
Authorities alleged that Zhu instigated employees in 2022 to post statements on Telegram and in official emails claiming that Hodlnaut had no direct exposure to UST and had not suffered losses from the token's collapse. As reported by Singapore police, these statements allegedly asserted that Hodlnaut did not have direct exposure to UST and/or did not suffer losses arising from the crash of UST. The communications allegedly claimed the platform "did not have direct exposure to UST" and "had not suffered losses arising from the UST crash" during the critical period between May and July 2022. Zhu also allegedly directed a separate employee to email 30 recipients stating the company had assumed no losses, according to court filings. The statements included a post where Hodlnaut wrote it had "not taken any losses as a firm" and that only users who personally held UST were affected. Zhu is claimed to have instructed his employee Goh Chang Teck to make false promises in the official Hodlnaut Telegram chat group, including statements made before May 25, 2022 that there was no direct involvement of the company in LUNA or UST and that none of the company's funds were invested in these assets. Additionally, authorities alleged that Zhu repeated similar claims on his personal X account (then known as Twitter) in three posts in June 2022.
Hodlnaut, which once claimed to serve over 30,000 users globally, became defunct in August 2022 amid a liquidity crisis. According to court documents filed in Singapore in August 2022 when the platform sought creditor protection, the May 2022 collapse of UST resulted in losses of roughly ₹1,580 crore ($189.7 million) for the platform. Reports filed during Hodlnaut's restructuring proceedings indicated the company had channelled roughly $317 million of user funds into Terra's Anchor Protocol, which was offering around 19.5% in annualized yield on UST deposits before the collapse. An interim judicial managers' report found that Hodlnaut had lost nearly $190 million through its exposure to the collapsed Terra ecosystem. Court-appointed managers later confirmed an additional $13.1 million in user assets were stranded on the collapsed FTX exchange. When the platform was shut down in August 2022, the company had an estimated $281 million owed to its users, while its assets totaled $88 million, resulting in a deficit of roughly $193 million. The crash triggered panic across the digital asset sector and fuelled a wider crypto lending crisis, with several major crypto lenders collapsing in the aftermath, including Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, Three Arrows Capital, and eventually FTX.
If convicted, Zhu faces up to 20 years in prison, a fine, or both, for each of the six charges, according to the police statement. The charges represent Singapore's intensified enforcement efforts against crypto-related crime, as the country has also arrested and extradited three suspects to the U.S. over allegations tied to crypto market-making firms for allegedly 'wash trading' cryptocurrencies to inflate trading volume and prices. The charges were announced by the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force, which has been investigating Hodlnaut and its directors since November 2022. Zhu appeared in court on May 26, 2026, when he was officially charged with committing six counts of fraud by false representation under Section 424A(1)(a) read with Section 424A(3) of the Penal Code 1871, with three additional counts under Section 109 related to abetment. Police emphasized the risks associated with cryptocurrency trading, stating "Dealing in cryptocurrencies is highly risky and not suitable for the general public, who also face the risk of service providers collapsing due to fraud." The case highlights the broader risks tied to digital assets and warns consumers to remain cautious when dealing with cryptocurrencies.
