Ex-Hodlnaut CEO faces 20 years in prison over Terra fallout

The government of Singapore has indicted the former CEO of the popular crypto exchange, Hodlnaut, on six charges of fraud. This is due to false representation resulting from the company’s collapse during the market volatility of 2022.

The UST collapse in early May 2022 led to losses across the crypto sector. Hodlnaut was not left out. The company invested $317 million from its user accounts in the Anchor Protocol on Terra without disclosing these details to customers, and when UST went down, they suffered losses of $189.7 million.

Hodlnaut’s collapse and the CEO’s hand in it

Hodlnaut was founded in April 2019 as an online platform that enabled people globally to deposit their Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins holdings in return for interest payments. Simon Lee and Zhu Juntao served as the co-founders of Hodlnaut.

In this regard, Zhu Juntao, a 36-year-old Singaporean, studied at Singapore Management University and had experience working at Credit Suisse. Under his management, Hodlnaut grew into a company handling over 30,000 clients, yielding up to 10% annual percentage yield (APY), and managing investments worth approximately $750 million.

After Terra’s collapse, Hodlnaut suspended customer withdrawal requests in June 2022 and eventually entered judicial management. When the platform was shut down in August 2022, the company had an estimated $281 million owed to its users, while its assets totaled $88 million, resulting in a deficit of roughly $193 million.

As a simple yield generator in the emerging world of decentralized finance, Hodlnaut attracted investors who wanted to earn from crypto without the complicated processes involved in transactions.

Mismanaged PR and false promises to customers

The prosecution claims that Zhu Juntao instructed his employees to make false promises during and after the UST’s collapse. From May until July 2022, Zhu allegedly incited his employee named Goh Chang Teck, to make false promises in the official Hodlnaut Telegram chat group. 

In one such case, made before May 25, 2022, he allegedly made a false promise that there was no direct involvement of the company in LUNA or UST and that none of the company’s funds were invested in these assets.

Zhu is also claimed to have instructed Megan Lois Lau Shi May, an employee, to send an email to approximately 30 users in 2022. The email stated that Hodlnaut had not incurred any losses as a firm, even though users trading UST on the platform had suffered those losses. 

Furthermore, Zhu himself posted three times in June 2022 on his personal X account (formerly Twitter). Some of these included: “Hodlnaut as a firm did not take any losses on UST, users who held/bought UST on our platform did,” “Missed this but had no price exposure to $UST or incurred any losses from the debacle,” and others.

Charges lay in wait, court appearances, and maximum prison penalties

Zhu appeared in court on May 26, 2026, when he was officially charged with committing six counts of fraud by false representation under Section 424A(1)(a) read with Section 424A(3) of the Penal Code 1871. 

There were three additional counts under Section 109 related to abetment. He pleaded not guilty and contested all the accusations. A pre-trial hearing was set for June 2026. 

If found guilty of any of the counts, Zhu is liable to serve up to 20 years in prison, pay a fine, or both. The Singapore police have used the case to issue general warnings to the public about investing in digital assets, given their extreme volatility and other factors.