Babel Finance
Valued at $2 billion in May 2022; froze withdrawals 23 days later
A Hong Kong-based crypto lender and trading firm serving institutions and wealthy investors, which began as a lender to Chinese bitcoin miners.
- Capital raised (announced)
- Estimated
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | 2021 |
| |
| Series B | 2022 |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flex Yang | — | Leading efforts to restructure Babel Finance | Oct 2026 | |
| Del Wang | — | Not established | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
2018
It started as a lender to cryptocurrency miners in China before moving to institutional clients in Hong Kong and Singapore.
10 May 2021
The company said it had lent $2 billion in crypto to more than 500 institutional clients by February 2021.
25 May 2022
The company said its team had grown from about 50 people to more than 170 since the Series A.
17 June 2022
The company cited unusual liquidity pressures.
August 2022
Later revised in response to creditor feedback, according to the company.
6 March 2023
Five Babel Finance group companies applied to the Singapore High Court for moratoria while they prepared a scheme of arrangement.
How it ended
Babel Finance suspended withdrawals and redemptions on 17 June 2022, citing unusual liquidity pressures. After circulating a restructuring plan to creditors, its group companies sought court protection in Singapore in March 2023 to prepare a scheme of arrangement under which creditors would be paid mainly in recovery tokens.
What happened next
- Court ruling17 April 2023
The court granted the five group companies protection from creditors until 21 July 2023, and sealed the creditor lists. One creditor had opposed the applications.
- Court ruling17 July 2023
- Court ruling24 November 2023
The scheme application was filed on 30 August 2023. The court granted leave to convene a creditors' meeting over one creditor's objection and extended the moratoria to three weeks after that meeting. Under the scheme, creditors would receive recovery tokens or rights in another company. The objecting creditor was pursuing an appeal.
Still alive
Open spot
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Sources
11 sources behind this page.
- 1Babel Begins In-Court Restructuring, Creditor Protection Extended · Blockhead · Apr 2023
- 2Babel Finance Raises $40M From Zoo Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global · CoinDesk · May 2021
- 3Babel Finance Suspends Withdrawals, Citing 'Unusual Liquidity Pressures' · CoinDesk · Jun 2022
- 4Crypto Lender Babel Finance Lands Unicorn Status With $80M Series B · CoinDesk · May 2022
- 5Babel Finance closes US$80 million Series B fundraising round at US$2 billion valuation · PR Newswire (company press release) · May 2022
- 6Babel Finance Files Moratorium Application in Singapore High Court · PR Newswire (company press release) · Mar 2023
- 7Babel Finance Secures $40 Million in Series A Round from Global Investors · PR Newswire (company press release) · May 2021
- 8Re Babel Holding Ltd (Parastate Labs, Inc and others, non-parties) [2023] SGHC 329 · Supreme Court of Singapore (eLitigation) · Nov 2023
- 9Re Babel Holding Ltd and other matters [2023] SGHC 98 · Supreme Court of Singapore (eLitigation) · Apr 2023
- 10Founder of troubled crypto asset unicorn Babel launches new DeFi project, stablecoin · TechCrunch (via Yahoo Finance) · Mar 2023
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- 11Babel Finance posts naming its founders, May 2021 to June 2022 · X, retrieved via twitterapi.io
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.