Crypto Investment Firm Blockwater Technologies Defaults on DeFi Loan

South Korean blockchain investment firm Blockwater Technologies defaulted on a loan from TrueFi, a decentralized lending protocol, TrueFi said in a statement Sunday.

According to the statement, TrueFi issued a “notice of default” to Blockwater on Oct. 6 after it failed payment on a $3.4 million loan in Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin.

Blockwater’s default seems to be the latest example of the crypto industry’s insolvency crisis. This year’s dramatic downturn of crypto markets, exacerbated by the implosion of the Terra blockchain, has led to the bankruptcy of multiple high-profile crypto firms, such as hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), crypto lender Celsius Network, digital asset broker Voyager Digital and crypto-mining data center operator Compute North.

Blockwater’s default on its debt came after TrueFi and Blockwater restructured the loan and extended the payment period in August. Blockwater managed to repay $654,000 of its outstanding debt after the restructuring efforts, but eventually missed payment. The remaining debt amounts to almost $3 million.

TrueFi determined that “a potential court-supervised administrative proceeding would lead to a better outcome for stakeholders given the complexity around the sudden insolvency,” according to the lending protocol’s statement.

“While we always prefer to pursue an out-of-court solution with distressed borrowers, in some instances an administrative proceeding is the best option in preserving value for stakeholders,” Roshan Dharia, head of lending at ArchBlock, which manages relationships between lenders and borrowers on the TrueFi protocol, told CoinDesk.

TrueFi remained in “active discussion” with Blockwater, and said that Blockwater’s insolvency does not affect the protocol’s other lending pools, per the statement.