Cred
A US crypto lender in Chapter 11 two years before Celsius and Voyager
A San Francisco crypto lender, launched as Libra Credit, that paid interest on customers' crypto through its CredEarn program and made dollar loans against crypto collateral.
- Capital raised (announced)
- Estimated
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
- Claims filed in the bankruptcy
As stated by the US Attorney's Office at sentencing: claims filed by customers and investors in the bankruptcy, valued as filed.
- Liabilities listed at filing
- Estimated
Estimated bracket in the November 2020 bankruptcy petition, as reported by CoinDesk; not an exact debt balance.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| LBA token sale | 2018 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Schatt | — | Sentenced on 29 August 2025 to 52 months in federal prison for wire fraud conspiracy, the sentence to begin on 28 October 2025 | Oct 2026 | |
| Lu Hua | — | Not established | Oct 2026 | |
| Joseph Podulka | — | Not established | Sep 2026 | |
| James Alexander | — | Not established | Sep 2026 |
Timeline
2017
May 2018
Listings give the sale window as 1 to 14 May, and one gives a main-sale end date of 5 May.
11 December 2018
PYMNTS described a developer toolkit for lending against cryptocurrency collateral. It was distinct from the later consumer CredEarn service.
2019
The trading platform partnered with Cred, and Daniel Schatt joined Uphold's board.
29 October 2020
The company said legal counsel had advised a temporary suspension and that a law enforcement investigation had begun.
7 November 2020
Grant Lyon joined the board to oversee the restructuring, and MACCO Restructuring Group was hired as financial adviser.
How it ended
Cred froze deposits and withdrawals in CredEarn, saying specific corporate funds had been lost, and within days filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware. Its partner Uphold ended the relationship. The case ended in a plan of liquidation rather than a restructuring.
What happened next
- Court ruling11 March 2021
The US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved a plan creating a liquidation trust to take over the company's cash, bitcoin and possible legal claims and distribute the proceeds. Unsecured creditors held about $162.8 million in claims under the plan.
- Criminal charges1 May 2024
Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of California filed two indictments: one against former chief executive Daniel Schatt and former finance chief Joseph Podulka, the other against former chief capital officer James Alexander. Reported charges were conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and engaging in financial transactions for illicit purposes. Schatt and Podulka were arrested and appeared in court in San Francisco.
- Criminal charges13 May 2025
Daniel Schatt and Joseph Podulka each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy.
- Court ruling29 August 2025
Senior US District Judge William Alsup sentenced Daniel Schatt to 52 months and Joseph Podulka to 36 months, each with three years of supervised release and a $25,000 fine, and set a separate restitution hearing.
Still alive
Open spot
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Sources
17 sources behind this page.
- 1Cred to Create Trust to Liquidate After Chapter 11 Plan Approved · Bloomberg Law
- 2California-based crypto lender Cred LLC execs sentenced to federal prison for fraud · CBS San Francisco
- 3Crypto Lender Cred Files for Bankruptcy After Losing Funds in Fraud · CoinDesk · Nov 2020
- 4Former Cred Executives Indicted on Wire Fraud, Other Charges · CoinDesk · May 2024
- 5Libra Credit Receives Over $16 Million Dollars to Democratize Lending and Bring Liquidity to the Crypto Marketplace · Coinspeaker (sponsored press release issued by Libra Credit) · Apr 2018
- 6Ex-Cred execs plead guilty to wire fraud over $150M crypto collapse · Cointelegraph
- 7Cred Is First, Big Bitcoin Intermediary to File for Bankruptcy in US · Decrypt · Nov 2020
- 8Former Cred Execs Sentenced to Federal Prison For $150M Crypto Fraud · Decrypt
- 9Crypto lender Cred collapsed in 2020 after pulling in $135 million from customers · Fortune (via Yahoo Finance)
- 10CRED (LBA) · ICO Drops · user-editable
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- 11Former CEO and CFO of cryptocurrency lender Cred LLC sentenced to multiple years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy convictions · IRS Criminal Investigation (release of the US Attorney's Office, Northern District of California) · Aug 2025
- 12Bay Area crypto executives sentenced to years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy · KRON4
- 13Crypto Investment Firm Cred Inc. Gets Nods On Ch. 11 Plan · Law360 · Mar 2021
- 14Libra Credit is a decentralized lending ecosystem · NextBigFuture
- 15Cred launches corporate lending APIs · PYMNTS
- 16Cred Inc., et al. (chapter 11 case information) · Stretto (claims and noticing agent)
- 17U.S. v. Daniel Schatt and Joseph Podulka, 24-CR-00243 WHA and U.S. v. James Alexander, 24-CR-00242 WHA · US Attorney's Office, Northern District of California
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.