There may still be a spread of FTX’s collapse contagion. The crypto trading and asset management company Amber Group, according to on-chain expert Lookonchain, appears to be on the verge of bankruptcy.
Only $11.1M In Assets
Amber boasts on its website to have over $5B “on its platform” and to be in charge of $1T in trade volume, however, according to Lookonchain, six wallets purportedly held by Amber only have $9.46M in assets between them. The amount of Amber’s on-chain assets increased to $11.1M after Jason Choi, the creator of the angel investing group Tangent, shared two more wallets.
Amber’s managing partner, Annabelle Huang, refuted the allegations. The business sent a statement that was similar to Huang’s but did not react to an email asking for clarification on its financial situation.
Mass Lay-offs
According to Colin Wu, an Asian-focused reporter covering cryptocurrency developments, the Singapore-based company made rid of 30% to 40% of its workforce in September before firing hundreds of people in December.
Many members of the cryptocurrency world are on edge as a result of FTX’s stunning collapse. Since the Sam Bankman-Fried-led exchange collapsed, there have been a number of bankruptcies and claims that trading companies like Orthogonal Trading and many others are effectively bankrupt.
As the crypto world searches for enterprises that might have been destroyed by the impact of FTX’s bankruptcy, big names like Amber have now joined the rumor mill. According to the company’s website, Amber was established in 2018 and provides a wide range of services, such as market-making and collateralized lending. It also takes part in numerous DeFi protocols.
Amber In $200M Fund Raising
In a capital round that valued Amber at $3B in March, $200M was raised. Temasek, a $300 billion sovereign wealth fund based in Singapore, took the lead in the round. One of the hottest markets in Asia for cryptocurrency startups is Singapore, where Temasek and its subsidiaries have made a number of investments over the past year.
According to Chief Executive Officer Michael Wu, Amber expanded its Series B investment round, which was first announced in June, specifically to include Temasek as an investor. The proceeds of the founding round would help Amber increase the global reach of a mobile application it introduced last year, as well as to hire people in Europe and the Americas.
It remains to be seen how the Amber insolvency rumor mill will affect the company and its objectives. Crypto exchange companies like Binance have responded to the FTX collapse by sharing Proof of Reserves (PoR) report. Will Amber do the same?
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