FTX Bankruptcy Sees Midas Investments Announce Closure

On Tuesday, Midas Investments announced its sudden closure in a blog by its CEO Iakov “Trevor” Levin. As a result of significant losses in 2022, the platform that focused on DeFi yields is closing its doors for the last time.

Levin writes that the platform saw its DeFi portfolio suffer a 20% loss of its assets under management (AUM) in the spring of 2022. A hit totaling 50 million dollars. The situation worsened after the collapse of FTX and Celcius when users withdrew over 60% of AUM, creating a large asset deficit. Based on those events and the “current CeFi market conditions, we have reached the difficult decision to close the platform,” he wrote.

According to the blog post, Midas lost 14 million dollars in the Ichi protocol and lost 15 million dollars due to the devaluation of the DeFi Alpha portfolio position. 

The CEO also made it clear that the company would pivot to a new on-chain project “that aligns with our vision for CeDeFi.” CeDeFi refers to centralized, decentralized finance. A structure that takes advantage of the benefits of decentralized finance but with more centralized decision-making at the top. 

The platform has published a YouTube video that explains their decision.

Midas Collapse Bookends Crypto’s Nightmare Year

Midas Investments is only the latest victim of crypto’s most dramatic year to date. The tsunami first appeared in May when the stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) plummeted following a mass sell-off. The wave engulfed large swathes of the crypto market, wiping out about $500 billion in approximately two weeks.

The surge washed out some of the industry’s previously rock-solid giants, including hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, and Celcius Network. Three Arrows Capital (3AC) used borrowed funds to make risky bets on the crypto markets, assuming prices would continue to rise. One of 3AC’s creditors was Voyager, to which it owed $650 million. When 3AC crumbled, Voyager followed shortly after. 

Digital asset lender BlockFi, and crypto exchange FTX collapsed later in the year.

This year’s crypto crash has also affected smaller Web3 and DeFi firms, as well as institutional and retail investors. At least 15 pension funds suffered losses due to their exposure to FTX.