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Three Arrows Faces Possible Insolvency After Unforeseen Liquidations: Report

The investment firm has been one of the most-vocal crypto market participants in the past few years.

3AC co-founder Su Zhu speaks at Crypto Bahamas. (Tracy Wang/CoinDesk)
3AC co-founder Su Zhu speaks at Crypto Bahamas. (Tracy Wang/CoinDesk)

Dubai-based crypto fund Three Arrows Capital is facing possible insolvency after incurring at least $400 million in liquidations, The Block reported Wednesday.

Three Arrows, popularly known as 3AC, was liquidated by crypto lending firms and is currently in the process of repaying lenders and other counterparties, according to the report.

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The firm’s founders, Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, were two of the most vocal participants in the crypto markets in the past few years, making bets on non-fungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, layer 1 blockchain tokens and cryptocurrency companies.

Zhu seemed to address rumors on Twitter this morning. “We are in the process of communicating with relevant parties and fully committed to working this out,” he said, without giving specifics.

Tokens listed as investments on the 3AC site include ether (ETH), solana (SOL), and luna (LUNA). Prices of these are down 77%, 90% and 99.7%, respectively, since lifetime highs, as per CoinGecko data.

3AC’s troubles come amid reports that crypto lender Celsius may be insolvent. The firm managed billions of dollars of user funds and may not possess enough capital to pay out investors.

One of these strategies Celsius used involved the usage of staked ether (stETH), a derivative tied to the ether that lost its peg and could have caused contagion risks, as reported.

Meanwhile, on-chain data suggests 3AC is selling its existing crypto positions to lower collateral requirements for certain positions. One of 3AC’s wallets has a debt totaling $183 million, blockchain data shows.

3AC did not respond to requests for comment at writing time.

Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.

Shaurya Malwa