Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals
> A cryptocurrency lender backed by Peter Thiel and Coinbase Global Inc. suspended withdrawals, trading and deposits on its platform, citing volatile market conditions and financial difficulties facing key business partners.<p>> The platform, Vauld, said Monday that it froze the operations after users pulled almost $200 million over the last three weeks. A sharp decline in cryptocurrency prices that began with the collapse of two cryptocurrencies in May has spooked traders and caused knock-on effects in the digital asset world.<p>It's called "a bank run":<p>> A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. ...<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run</a><p>Except this bank has no FDIC insurance, no backstop, nothing.<p>Oddly enough, I think US tax policy may play a factor here in motivating people to ignore the repeated and loud warnings about how this was a really, really bad idea. When you're facing massive capital gains taxes, and have an inkling that those gains will turn to losses, the idea of lending out the asset, spending the cash without incurring tax, then getting the asset back starts to look attractive.<p>Of course, the real problem was that those warnings got ignored. I mean, who reads something like this without alarm bells going off all over the place?<p>> Our interest rates and trading fees are among the best in the industry. You can earn interest of up to 11.57% (APY) on your cryptocurrencies, and borrow tokens with our spread being as low as 1%. We don't charge deposit or withdrawal fees, or fix a cap on your daily withdrawals. You can check all our fees and rates here.<p><a href="https://www.vauld.com/home" rel="nofollow">https://www.vauld.com/home</a>