Crypto lender Abra has been insolvent or nearly insolvent since the end of March, Texas regulators said yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In an emergency cease and desist order, the Texas State Securities Board alleged that Abra, its related entities and founder William John “Bill” Barhydt committed securities fraud. Abra offered and sold investments in its yield programs Abra Earn and Abra Boost that contained “statements that are materially misleading or otherwise likely to deceive the public,” the regulator said. The Silicon Valley-based company also secretly transferred assets to Binance.com—an exchange banned for Americans—and had assets valued at about $119 million with the global crypto exchange as of February, according to the complaint. As of February, the complaint said, Abra had more than $12 million stuck at collapsed crypto exchange FTX. It also made tens of millions of dollars of bad loans to several crypto companies that failed last year, including nearly $30 million to Babel Finance, $30 million to Genesis and $10 million to Three Arrows Capital. (Subscription required.)
