Zipmex Founder Unwilling To Resign Despite Huge Losses
- Zipmex CEO and founder declared that he would continue to run the company unless its new major shareholders insist he steps down.
- Lim appeared dedicated to repaying the $50 million the crypto exchange lost as a result of the failure of Babel Finance and Celsius Network.
Marcus Lim, the founder of the troubled crypto exchange Zipmex, recently declared that he would continue to run the company unless its new major shareholders insist he steps down.
While speaking with The Australian Financial Review, Lim appeared dedicated to repaying the $50 million he lost as a result of the failure of Babel Finance and Celsius Network. He intends to continue in his role as CEO and work on a restructuring strategy to give back the approximately 400,000 customers their entire holdings. Lim added:
“This plan includes potentially bringing in new majority shareholders who may want a greater say in management decisions.”
Notably, Lim’s position as CEO was questioned when rumors that a minority shareholder had sent an email calling for Lim’s dismissal broke the space. However, according to the Financial Review, at an extraordinary general meeting held in Singapore on Thursday, no investor spoke up to demand that Lim or any member of his management team resign.
Troubled Zipmex finds some breathing space
Recall that Lim stopped withdrawals on Zipmex last month after its balance sheet was badly damaged by the significant loss, challenging it to provide investors with the 10% promised yield on its ZipUp+ product.
The Aussie-founded exchange now aims to complete a new capital raise of between $50 million and $80 million to return money to investors after Singapore’s High Court granted Zipmex three-month creditor protection last week. The five operating units of Zipmex, which has 250 people in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia, have all been given bankruptcy protection as well as protection from lawsuits until December 2.
Notably, Zipmex allowed 60% of its users to withdraw their funds in the form of Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, Cardano, and Ripple since freezing withdrawals in July.
Due to highly leveraged trading strategies that were abruptly unwound after a strong market drop, Zipmex is not the only crypto-based company dealing with cascading solvency issues.
After seeking protection from its creditors last week, another Singaporean cryptocurrency lender Hodlnaut announced extensive layoffs over the weekend amid “police proceedings.”
Like Zipmex, Hodlnaut halted withdrawals and was the most recent in a string of cryptocurrency lenders to collapse this year due to market pressure, with Celsius Network and Voyager Digital all seeking bankruptcy protection.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
