Singapore has charged Zhu Juntao, the former chief executive of collapsed crypto lender Hodlnaut, with six counts of fraud by false representation, the Singapore Police Force announced on May 26, 2026 — the first major criminal charge arising from the 2022 crypto lender contagion in the city-state.
Prosecutors allege Zhu directed Hodlnaut employees between May and July 2022 to post misleading statements on the company's official Telegram group and in emails sent directly to customers, falsely claiming the firm had no direct exposure to the TerraUSD collapse and had suffered no losses from it. Authorities also allege Zhu published three posts on his personal Twitter account in June 2022 repeating the same claims.
Each of the six charges is brought under Section 424A(1)(a) of Singapore's Penal Code 1871, some read with Section 109 for abetment. Each charge carries imprisonment of up to 20 years, a fine, or both.
The allegations sit against a backdrop of significant concealed losses. Restructuring filings show Hodlnaut had channelled roughly $317 million of user funds into Terra's Anchor Protocol, which was offering around 19.5% annualized yield on UST deposits before the ecosystem collapsed in May 2022. Court-appointed judicial managers later estimated Hodlnaut lost approximately $189.7 million from that exposure. The firm served more than 30,000 users globally before halting withdrawals in August 2022. It subsequently entered judicial management and was ordered into liquidation by the Singapore High Court.
The Terra collapse itself erased roughly $40 billion from crypto markets and triggered a chain of failures across the lending sector, bringing down Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and Voyager in the months that followed. Hodlnaut's concealment of its Terra position — while customers still held funds on the platform — sits at the centre of the charges.
Zhu, 36, disputed all six charges when they were read in court. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for June 2026, according to local media reports citing Channel News Asia.
The prosecution marks a significant enforcement step for Southeast Asia. Singapore has positioned itself as a regulated crypto hub since 2020, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore moved to tighten licensing requirements in the wake of the 2022 collapses. Criminal charges against a founder, not just civil or regulatory action, signal that authorities are willing to pursue individual accountability for conduct during that period.
Sources: Singapore Police Force press release, May 26, 2026; CoinDesk, May 27, 2026; Channel News Asia, May 27, 2026.