Ex-Starling founderʼs Ziglu enters special administration

Crypto firm Ziglu applied to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for special administration on June 26, and has left customers in limbo after freezing its “deposit account”, Ziglu Boost, ahead of official notices on the FCA register.

Ziglu founder and CEO Mark Hipperson also previously co-founded Starling Bank and two other FCA-authorised fintech companies, Centtrip and Vemi Money. 

Ziglu was established in the UK in 2018, originally under the name Livecon Services. It is licensed as an “e-money institution” and registered with the FCA as a crypto asset firm under the Money Laundering Regulation (MLR 2017). As well as offering a “full ecosystem” of services — including crypto exchange, crypto-on-card debit cards, peer-to-peer payments and foreign exchange services — it was seeking to launch Ziglu Coin.

Robinhood was on the verge of acquiring Ziglu for $170 million in April 2022, before cancelling the deal in 2023. According to contemporaneous reporting by Finextra, Robinhood returned with “a watered-down $60 million offer, leading to the abandonment of the deal”.

The delayed downfall

On May 16, 2025, several customers began reporting on Trustpilot and Reddit that Ziglu had frozen their accounts without notice, and some claimed they received an “order failed on submit” message after requesting to withdraw funds.

Customers were mainly unable to withdraw funds from Ziglu’s Boost Account, described by company marketing as its “investment account” designed to generate a yield.

On May 23, Ziglu sent customers emails stating it was shutting down “all products” and asking them to withdraw their funds before June 25. However, customers are still unable to transfer funds from their Boost Accounts to their Cash Accounts in order to send money to their banks.

A customer claimed on Trustpilot: “The emails say that customer service is still operating but when you call the hotline a message says that ‘our lines are now closed’. I did email several times but had not received any response, except for the reminders to withdraw my money by [June 25], which however is not possible.”

Andrew Yarwood, the money laundering reporting officer (MLRO) listed on the FCA register, left the firm in January 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile. Compliance Corylated contacted Ziglu via the email it was using to correspond with customers. At the time of going to press, no response had been received.

The FCA issued its first notice on May 23, restricting Ziglu from taking any action with respect to Boost Accounts, according to the FCA register.

The UK watchdog then imposed a voluntary undertaking on June 13 and published the notice on June 17, prohibiting Ziglu from issuing e-money, carrying on a payment service, or acting as a crypto-asset exchange and custodian wallet.

The directors applied to place the firm into special administration on June 26. According to an FCA spokesperson, an administrator may be appointed by the court in a hearing expected to take place in the week commencing July 7.

Boost accounts

Ziglu has two main Boost products, available since 2021, including Bitcoin Boost and Sterling Boost (linked to stablecoin TGBP). According to its website: “Our Boost accounts are investment accounts which allow you to invest your crypto-assets, (stablecoin or crypto) and generate a yield.

“When you credit your Boost account, you provide your crypto-assets to Ziglu and we use those crypto-assets transferred to us at our discretion, including transferring them to selected third parties.”

Yield is credited to customers’ Boost accounts every Saturday in the source currency. However, the “selected third parties” generating the yield remain unidentified.

On Ziglu’s social media accounts, the platform claimed to be paying up to 6% of yield on GBP holdings (Sterling Boost) and 2% on BTC holdings (Bitcoin Boost). It also allowed up to £100,000 deposit per Boost account.

Getting money back?

In a LinkedIn post, Ziglu stated: “Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.”

Crypto and digital assets are largely unregulated in the UK, meaning investments made using distributed ledger technology (DLT) are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

However, Ziglu is authorised by the FCA as an “e-money institution”, which requires it to safeguard customer funds in case of insolvency. This is not FSCS protection but does ensure funds are either segregated or invested in low-risk assets.

The current regime is primarily governed by the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011.  

Once Ziglu enters special administration, an administrator will be appointed to maximise company value, possibly by selling either the firm or its assets. The administrator will create a distribution plan to return client assets, subject to approval by the creditorsʼ committee and the court.

Financial footprints

On Ziglu’s official regulation page, the firm claimed that customers’ fiat currency is safeguarded at “an EEA authorised credit institution”.

While we could not identify the specific institution, the fully regulated ClearBank claimed in a June 7, 2022 statement that it “gives Ziglu’s end-customers safeguarded accounts, removing third-party credit risk”.

“ClearBank is very pleased to have partnered with Ziglu and to provide safeguarded Virtual GBP Accounts, and we look forward to expanding the proposition together for a long time to come,” ClearBank CEO Charles McManus said in the statement.

We have not had a response from ClearBankʼs press office to a request for comment.

Compliance Corylated also found that Hipperson registered Ziglu EEA, UAB in the Republic of Lithuania on December 3, 2024. According to the Lithuanian companies database, Ziglu EEA’s credit risk is assessed as the “highest” based on the available data.

Ziglu also claimed to be registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) — both as a crypto exchange and a depository virtual currency wallet — with the Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS), according to its terms and conditions.

On December 20, 2024, Ziglu granted Factortech Funding II Cell A1 PC a fixed and floating charge over all its present and future intellectual property, assets and undertakings, according to a registration of a charge on Companies House. Ziglu used its intellectual property and other assets as security for a loan; itʼs likely this deal was made to secure funding or credit for the company.  

Ziglu has also raised funds from 2,620 investors through crowdfunding platform Seedrs (currently known as Republic Europe), raising £6.1 million in 2020, £7.1 million in 2021 and £1.4 million in 2023.

This is the first article in our series on Ziglu’s collapse. The next will cover the downfall of several FCA-registered crypto platforms and the wider regulatory landscape.