“Three Arrows Capital. Celsius. Voyager Digital. The list of crypto bankruptcies, shutdowns and trading freezes has been endless in 2022. And the year isn’t over yet. This week, German crypto bank Nuri urged its users to withdraw funds ahead of the company’s planned shutdown in December — at least Nuri’s users were given proper notice” [Bourgi, S. Crypto Biz: Bear market claims another casualty. (Accessed October 22, 2022)].
Before rebranding to Nuri in May 2021, Bitwala has been operating since 2015, offering users the convenience of a regular bank account combined with Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets. Some perks offered by the company included saving plans via recurring Bitcoin purchases, as well as Nuri Pots—a collection of different exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investment products. Nuri expanded its Series B funding round to $23.5 million (€24 million) in June 2021, reporting more than 250,000 customers in 32 countries at the time. ‘Nuri looked beyond old boundaries, leveraging new technologies, including blockchain and decentralized finance to open up a wide range of possibilities for anyone to manage and grow their money’.
[Asmakov, A. Berlin Bitcoin Neobank Nuri Shutters Business, Warns Clients to Withdraw Funds. (Accessed October 22, 2022)].
From the start of this saga, Nuri has protected the interests of its investors. On August 9, 2022, applied to the District Court to open insolvency proceedings reporting it had 500,000 customers and manages assets of approximately 325 Million Euros. In so doing:
The crypto bank said the move will ‘ensure the safest path forward’ for all its customers but also stressed that the insolvency will not affect its services, customer funds, investments or the ability for customers to withdraw their assets from the platform" (Emphasis added) [Quarmby, B. German crypto bank Nuri with 500K users files for insolvency. (Accessed August 10, 2022)].
[Nagoda, K. A New Day - A New Contagion Victim (But This One Is Not As Bad for Investors). (Accessed October 22, 2022)].
Back in August, Nuri’s position was reiterated and stressed in a blog posting:
Let us reiterate the most important information for you: All funds in your Nuri accounts are safe due to our partnership with Solarisbank AG. The temporary insolvency proceedings do not affect your deposits, cryptocurrency funds and Nuri Pot investments which have been done with us. Your Euro deposits in the Bank Account, Bitcoin and Ether deposits in Wallets & Vaults, and the Nuri Pot investments are not affected by this situation. You have guaranteed access and will be able to deposit and withdraw all funds freely at any time. For the time being, nothing will change and Nuri’s app, product and services will continue to run.
[Nuri. Nuri filed for insolvency on Tuesday, August 9th, 2022. (Accessed October 22, 2022)].
And now, fast forwarding to today, Nuri once again takes the high road and is providing its investors notice of the pending closure in advance and is providing assurances to the investors concerning the safety of their funds.
“Nuri CEO Kristina Mayer assured users that “All assets in your Nuri account are safe and unaffected by Nuri’s insolvency.” Nuri going bust isn’t good for the industry, but they handled it much better than Celsius, which locked user withdrawals before filing for bankruptcy” [Bourgi, supra].
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In the aforementioned letter by Mayer, she states: "This year, the challenges have become insuperable due to the tough economical & political environment of the past months, which kept us from raising new funds or finding an acquirer. On top, the insolvency of one of our main business partners worsened the situation significantly and put us over the edge. As a result, Nuri had to file for temporary insolvency in August this year’ [Mayer, K. Letter from our CEO Kristina. (Accessed October 22, 2022)].
She then added: "During the preliminary insolvency proceedings, we have worked very closely with our insolvency administrators on a restructuring plan in the past 3 months and tried to find a potential acquirer to continue our story. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find investors to continue our mission and have asked our customers to withdraw their funds by 18/12/2022 the latest, so the business can be terminated and liquidated. Customers have access and will be able to withdraw all funds until the aforementioned date. All assets in your Nuri account are safe and unaffected by Nuri’s insolvency. Trading will be possible until 30/11/2022. (emphasis added) [Id].
Nuri has provided investors with answers to FAQs which may be accessed through its Support Centre by clicking here
“While regretting that Nuri wasn’t able to continue writing its story, Walcker-Maye said she still believes ‘in the endless possibilities of blockchain-based finance’ that will ‘add true value to the lives of people.’ The harsh reality, however, is that as many as 215 Nuri employees—according to the company’s LinkedIn profile—are now set to lose their jobs” [Asmakov, supra].
