Singapore-based Zipmex resumed withdrawals last week, a day after suspending them on July 20, and said it was working to address its exposure of $53 million to crypto lenders Babel Finance and Celsius.

Zipmex's solicitors submitted five applications on July 22 seeking moratoriums to prohibit legal proceedings against Zipmex for up to six months, the cryptocurrency exchange said https://bit.ly/3zEMmKD on Wednesday.

Under Singapore law, such a filing grants companies an automatic moratorium for 30 days, or until a Singapore Court makes a decision on the application, whichever is earlier.

Zipmex, which operates in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia according to its website, is the latest in a string of crypto players globally to run into difficulties following a sharp sell off in markets that started in May with the collapse of two paired tokens, Luna and TerraUSD.

Singapore's ambitious cryptocurrency sector, by some measures Asia-Pacific's largest, has also been shaken by the recent collapse of crypto fund Three Arrows Capital.

(Reporting by Hazra Nivedita and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)