Babel Finance Mulls Crypto-Backed Stablecoin to Repay $766M: Report

Troubled Hong Kong crypto lender Babel Finance is planning on issuing a crypto-backed stablecoin in unison with a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform in an attempt to repay creditors following a $766 million loss last year, according to a Bloomberg report.

The lender froze withdrawals last June citing "unusual liquidity pressures" following a market downturn that spawned out of the $60 billion collapse of the Terra ecosystem.

Babel is on the verge of filing a moratorium extension that would prevent creditors from making claims for at least six months, the report said. The filing alleges that co-founder Wang Li racked up $524 million in proprietary trading losses, with another $224 million being lost after lenders liquidated collateral that underpinned loans issued to Babel.

Yang Zhou, co-founder and sole director of Babel Finance, has teamed up with several former employees to build out Hope - a DeFi platform that will feature a stablecoin of the same name.

According to a proposal, the Hope stablecoin will be backed by bitcoin and ether, which will see it maintain its one dollar peg as traders can benefit from arbitrage opportunities when the value dips below or rises above the peg.

It draws comparison with the Terra USD (UST) stablecoin that prompted the market collapse last year, as that was also backed with crypto as opposed to fiat currencies and equivalents like USD Coin (USDC) and tether (USDT).