Nuri Exchange Becomes Most Recent Casualty of the Ongoing Bear Market

German crypto exchange Nuri will close its doors on Dec. 18, 2022, after failing to raise adequate capital as it reeled from a broader crypto credit contagion related to Celsius Network.

Accordingly, the company has asked customers to withdraw their crypto and fiat funds before the Nuri app closes on Dec. 18, 2022. 

Nuri exchange had strong ties to Celsius

Customers holding Euro funds in their Nuri accounts can withdraw the money from an ATM using their Nuri Visa debit card or electronically move it to another bank.

Nuri has partnered with European crypto and banking company Vivid Money GmbH to offer its former customers access to crypto services after the shutdown. Former Nuri exchange customers moving to Vivid benefit from a special Vivid “Prime” membership.

Trading will be available on the Nuri app until Nov. 30, 2022.

Nuri faced a liquidity crunch after the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin ecosystem and the Celsius meltdown in the second quarter of 2022. It filed for insolvency in a Berlin court on Aug. 9, 2022, and soon after that, it worked with insolvency agents to develop a restructuring plan. 

It decided to close its doors after it could not find an interested buyer, including existing shareholders, with enough liquidity to weather the current bear market.

In a company blog post on Oct. 18, 2022, CEO Kristina Walcker-Mayer thanked customers for their loyalty. “Thank you to our customers for your trust and support from day one. You were the reason we started this product. Your engagement and continuous feedback were our key drivers to continuously challenge the status quo and upgrade your experience. It makes us truly sad that we won’t continue this journey together.”

Founded in 2015, Nuri had raised 42.3 million euros from eight funding rounds, the most recent of which happened in June 2021.

Nuri had offered customers the ability to lend bitcoin and earn up to 3% per year in interest, which could be paid weekly. Unfortunately for the company, it offered this product through a partnership with Celsius Network, the crypto lender that froze withdrawals in June 2022, and was at the heart of the credit contagion prevailing at the time.

At press time, Celsius is awaiting the auction of its assets to pay creditors’ outstanding funds.

“On top, the insolvency of one of our main business partners worsened the situation significantly and put us over the edge,” Walcker-Mayer said. According to the CEO, Nuri exchange’s insolvency does not affect anyone wishing to make claims against Celsius. Customers wishing to make such claims should check that their names are not listed on page 92 of this document before filing an independent claim.

Nuri becomes a victim of credit contagion

Nuri has become the latest crypto company stung by a network of interconnected lending that came toppling down like a house of cards between May and June 2022.

After the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister coin LUNA in May 2022, Singaporean Hedge Fund Three Arrows Capital lost at least $200 billion from its investment in LUNA and is now undergoing liquidation by court-appointed liquidators Teneo following an earlier bankruptcy filing.

Toronto-based Voyager Digital, a crypto broker, filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 after it lost out on a $600 million-plus loan to Three Arrows. It hopes to partly pay out its customers through the proceedings of the Three Arrows Liquidation.

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