Peer-to-peer crypto lending startup Dharma pauses new deposits and loans

Dharma, the San Francisco-based crypto lending startup behind the open-source protocol of the same name, has announced via Twitter that it is "pausing new deposits and loans" on its platform. In February, Dharma raised $7 million in funding to enable users to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies peer-to-peer. In late June, the startup announced Instant Match, a product enabling users to earn interest on cryptocurrencies they deposit on the platform. One month later, Dharma announced via its Telegram group that it had "turned off" the product and that the firm "has some exciting announcements coming in the next few weeks."

More recently, Dharma experienced what it claims to be a "front-end software bug" in its application that caused withdrawals to be frozen. This bug was later fixed. According to analytics firm LoanScan, Dharma has seen zero loans originating from its protocol since late-July.