The contagion from FTX’s collapse may still be spreading.

Lookonchain, an on-chain analyst, claims that Amber Group, a crypto trading and asset management firm, appears to be on the brink of bankruptcy.

Lookonchain said six wallets allegedly owned by Amber have only $9.46M in assets between them — Amber claims on its website to have over $5B “on its platform” and to be responsible for $1T of trading volume.

Jason Choi, founder of Tangent, an angel investing collective, shared two additional wallets, bringing the value of Amber’s on-chain assets up to $11.1M.

Annabelle Huang, managing partner at Amber, denied the allegations. The company did not respond to an email requesting clarity on its financial position but put out a statement echoing Huang’s.

Mass Layoffs

The Singapore-based firm laid off hundreds of employees in December after letting 30% to 40% of its staff go in September, according to Colin Wu, a reporter focused on crypto developments in Asia.

FTX’s spectacular implosion has much of the crypto community on edge — a string of bankruptcies and allegations that trading firms like Orthogonal Trading are essentially insolvent have frequently sent shockwaves through crypto since the Sam Bankman-Fried-led exchange fell apart.

Now, large players like Amber have become part of the rumor mill as the crypto community looks to sniff out which companies may have been wiped out by the fallout from FTX’s bankruptcy.

Amber was founded in 2018 and offers a broad range of services, including market making and collateralized lending — it also participates in a slew of DeFi protocols, according to the company’s website.

Amber raised $200M in March in a funding round that valued the company at $3B. Temasek, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund with $300B in assets, led the round.

The firm has had a tumultuous few weeks — its co-founder Tiantian Kullander passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on Nov. 23.

https://thedefiant.io/amber-group-denies-insolvency-claims