Crypto investment firm Vauld abruptly halts withdrawals

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Editor's note: Citing broader volatility in the crypto market due to macro economic circumstances and collapse of certain key crypto institutions, Vauld has decided to suspend withdrawals, deposits and trading for all users. The Singapore-headquartered but largely India-based company offered users a place to invest their cryptocurrency holdings and earn interest as high as 12.68% (and in a few cases higher); it also offers a trading platform as a cryptocurrency exchange.  Depositors who spoke with us said they were not given any information by the exchange about the halting of operations prior to today’s announcement. The same goes for crypto startups who used Vauld’s exchange for operations, who said they were unaware of its plans to halt all activity until today. Over the past couple of weeks, the company has repeatedly reassured customers that all is well despite the rapid crash in cryptocurrency prices. The primary business involved taking crypto deposits and then lending them out to institutions that wanted to trade in crypto. Vauld—earlier called Bank of Hodlers—positions itself as a bank of sorts, but as with almost all decentralized finance, …