Crypto Lender Delio Freezes Withdrawals Citing ‘Market Volatility’

South Korean digital asset savings and lending firm Delio froze withdrawals today in an effort to protect remaining customers’ assets. 

In a notice on its website (translated from Korean), the firm said it will “inevitably suspend withdrawals temporarily as of June 14,” due to a “sharp increase in market volatility and increased confusion among investors.” 

“Delio will do its best to protect the assets of our customers while quickly grasping the facts and aftermath related to this situation,” the company added. 

The lender’s notice referenced the suspension of deposits and withdrawals at Haru Invest–another South Korean earning platform that ran into issues with one of its service providers on Tuesday. Haru serves over 80,000 customers across 140 countries, and has roughly $1 billion in assets under management, according to an April 18 update.

Delio cited similar figures on its website, boasting 41,743 BTC ($1.1 billion) and 118,083 ETH ($206 million) under management. 

Both platforms offer crypto savings accounts with returns exceeding 10% APY, with some of Haru’s products exceeding returns of 50% APY. Delio also provides crypto-backed loans, with which users must provide crypto collateral in excess of the requested loan amount. 

A host of similar platforms such as Celsius and BlockFi were forced to freeze withdrawals and ultimately file for bankruptcy last year as a cratering crypto market left them with little capacity to pay back creditors. 

Crypto lending firms have generally had trouble operating in North America due to securities legislation. Nexo settled with the SEC for $45 million in January and agreed to depart from the United States after hitting a regulatory “dead-end.”

Similarly, Canadian Securities Regulators have banned crypto margin trading entirely and forced lending platforms like LEDN to stop providing savings products to Canadian customers.