Haru Invest has paused deposits and withdrawals “until further notice” on its high-yielding digital asset management platform, citing “a certain issue” with one of its partners.
“Recently, we have discovered through our internal inspection process that certain information provided by a consignment operator was suspected to be false,” a blog post by the Singapore-based company with $1 billion in assets under management said. “After careful investigation, we concluded that immediate suspension of transactions was necessary to protect our investors. We are currently engaging in a fact-finding process against the operator in question and plan to take necessary measures.”
Haru promises returns as high as 50% in some cases, though often that can mean investors’ crypto assets are locked-up for long periods of time. Eye-popping yields were once common in decentralized finance before the collapse of Terra blockchain. But since its crash, the sustainability of such platforms has been called into question. Terra, which offered a stablecoin with nearly 20% yields through an application called Anchor, collapsed in May of last year when there was a rush of investors pulling their money out of Anchor.
Some online reports in South Korea, where Haru was founded, have called the platform’s suspension a “rug pull,” or a so-called pump and dump scam popular in the digital asset space. However, Haru has assured investors such claims “are not true at all.”
“We are now fully working on the matter, and committed to protecting our investors,” Haru said in a blog post. “The company sincerely apologizes that its latest announcement has caused concerns to our valued investors and customers.”
Haru did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
