Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius moved nearly $900M of ETH within a week: data

Celsius wallet has been quite active amid the ongoing bankruptcy and restructuring process. The troubled crypto lender – which is one of the largest firms with an ETH portfolio – has transferred nearly $900 million worth of crypto assets over the past week.

Celsius’ ether movement

According to statistics Shared by blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, approximately $20 million of Celsius ETH has been moved in Wintermute OTC and Custody Withdrawals. Subsequently, the bankrupt crypto lending firm also transferred 30,800 ETH, worth about $57 million at press time, to a smart contract called “Figment ETH2 Beacon Depositor 1”.

The transaction for Figment, which is a non-custodial service, represented one of the largest movements of funds for the crypto lender since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July.

In addition, Arkham also saw Celsius unstake $779 million in ETH with Lido, a liquid staking derivatives protocol that launched v2. The movement of funds by Celsius is not surprising, given that many institutions that had withdrawn their ETH have begun to repatriate them since mid-April.

Commenting on the move, bitcoin pioneer and Celsius creditor Simon Dixon guessed The firm “may be willing to make direct bets without a lido in the middle.” The removed Ether can also be used as part of the platform’s restructuring and creditor repayment plans.

Celsius story so far

Earlier this month, Celsius enabled eligible users to withdraw the remaining 6% of distributable custodial assets from the platform following court approval. Those same users – mostly those who once had funds in custody accounts – were limited to withdrawing up to 94% of their funds as of January this year.

The reimbursement move was seen as a sign of progress for the now-defunct crypto lender, which halted user withdrawals last June as a result of tremendous pressure following the sudden implosion of blockchain project Terra and the subsequent downturn of the crypto market.

Celsius filed to consolidate the US and UK entities amid allegations of poor record-keeping and apparent deficiencies in its internal systems.

Its founder Alex Mashinsky was accused of defrauding investors out of billions of dollars in crypto by hiding the “failing health” of the lending platform. Exec — who resigned from her CEO role in September — filed a response seeking the dismissal of New York State’s complaint against her.