Babel Finance lost $280 million in trading in a falling market

The Block has received access to proposals for the restructuring of the credit service Babel Finance. It turned out that the company lost $280 million of client funds when trading cryptocurrencies.

There is a suspicion that Babel Finance traders did not disdain margin transactions and, as a result of the market fall, positions were closed on a margin call. As a result, the company lost about 8,000 bitcoins and 56,000 ethers.

“In June, when BTC plummeted from $30,000 to $20,000, our unhedged accounts were at a significant loss. Several trading positions were directly liquidated and we lost about 8,000 BTC and 56,000 ETH. The failure of our sales team brought the entire business out of the normal. At the same time, we usually conduct business with the necessary level of control,” the document says.

Apparently, the company gave carte blanche to its trading team and was issued funds from Babel Finance wallets on the first request. Therefore, it is not surprising that traders lost such a significant amount of funds and threatened the existence of the company itself.

Now Babel Finance is looking for a restructuring opportunity. Companies need hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off their debts. To do this, the company plans to transfer debts to its largest creditors totaling $150 million into convertible bonds, as well as issue additional bonds. With their help, Babel’s management wants to raise between $250 million and $300 million and get an additional $200 million loan to “recover business.” At the same time, the largest creditors will become shareholders of the company.

Recall that the service suspended the withdrawal of funds to customers in mid-June.