Three Arrows Capital Founders Break Their Silence, Look to Move to Dubai: Report
The beleaguered duo discussed how one of the most successful crypto funds went from being a prominent trading desk to owing creditors $2.8 billion.
Jul 22, 2022 at 9:14 a.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 4:15 p.m. UTC
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The founders of insolvent crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, have broken their silence in an interview with Bloomberg.
- The duo described the collapse as "regrettable," but denied claims they pulled money from the fund before its collapse, according to the report.
- The collapse of Three Arrows, also known as 3AC, was seemingly triggered by the fall of the Terra ecosystem and sent ripples in the crypto market. Investors are claiming the defunct fund still owes them $2.8 billion. On Monday, a 1,157-page court filing revealed the extent of the hedge fund's debt following the implosion, with individual claims worth over $1 billion.
- The founders declined to say where they were, but one of the lawyers on the call said their ultimate destination is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the report added.
- “Given that we had planned to move the business to Dubai, we have to go there soon to assess whether we move there as originally planned or if the future holds something different for us,” Zhu added.
- In the report, Zhu said the reason for the fund's collapse was placing leveraged trades with hope that the crypto market would rebound to the upside. He compared 3AC's implosion to that of Celsius Network, a crypto lending firm that froze withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy protection after it failed to keep enough liquidity to honor customer redemptions.
- One of 3AC's largest positions that went sour was in the Terra ecosystem and its token LUNA, which effectively collapsed to zero in May. The pair insists they are cooperating with authorities while trying to keep a low profile.
- “For Kyle and I, there’s so many crazy people in crypto that kind of made death threats or all this kind of noise,” Zhu said. “We feel that it’s just the interest for everyone if we can be physically secured and keep a low profile.”
- Three Arrows Capital did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for a comment.
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Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.