Celsius Network attracts 30 potential bidders

Celsius Network, the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending company, has attracted 30 potential bidders for the acquisition of its assets, receiving approval for withdrawal for a minority of its customers. 

Celsius Network: 30 bidders for its assets and withdrawals for a minority of customers

The crypto lending company that declared itself insolvent last July, Celsius Network, has updated its status:

You can find the presentation we shared with the Court this morning here: https://t.co/Jdo0AjrS6v

— Celsius (@CelsiusNetwork) December 20, 2022

In essence, according to a presentation filed on 20 December, it appears that Celsius has gathered 30 potential bidders for its assets and has been given the green light to return some of its customers’ funds. 

Specifically, more than 125 firms were approached, but only 30 of them were allowed to enter negotiations with proposals to acquire their assets, migrate Celsius customers to their platforms, or bid for individual assets. 

The deadline for such bids was scheduled for 12 December, now Celsius Network warns that the auction for the various assets is set for 10 January. 

Celsius Network and the go-ahead for the return of some crypto funds

According to the data, it appears that Celsius reportedly had a $1.2 billion deficit as early as last November, consisting largely of the deposits of users who were blocked from withdrawing. However, the total crypto value amounted to $1.75 billion. 

Despite these exorbitant figures, it appears that the lending company has managed to generate positive operating cash flow each month by continuing to allocate additional mining facilities. 

For this very reason, Martin Glenn, the bankruptcy judge, granted the motion on 1 September, allowing Celsius to reactivate withdrawals, albeit for a minority of customers. 

And indeed, this involves the withdrawal only of assets held in the Custody Program, in amounts less than $7,575. 

The large withdrawals made by executives before the bankruptcy filing 

According to what emerged in October, it appears that Celsius executives would have withdrawn about $42 million in crypto before withdrawals were blocked for customers. 

Basically, between May and June, what was then CEO, Alex Mashinsky, co-founder Daniel Leon, and Chief Technology Officer, Nuke Goldstein allegedly made withdrawals in BTC, ETH, USDC, and in CEL, the Celsius token. 

Specifically, Mashinsky allegedly withdrew $10 million, Leon $7 million in crypto, and $4 million in CEL. Goldstein, on the other hand, allegedly initially withdrew $13 million in crypto by depositing it into other Celsius-managed accounts, with $550,000 later leaving the Celsius ecosystem. 

Such withdrawals were probably also legitimate, but given the declaration of bankruptcy in July, such actions might suggest that executives already knew about the situation weeks, if not months, beforehand. 

And in fact, other executives such as the company’s Chief Compliance Officer Oren Blonstein, Chief Risk Officer Rodney Sunada-Wong, and new CEO Chris Ferraro made no significant withdrawals during that pre-bankruptcy period. 

The curious financial connections between FTX and Celsius

Dirty Bubble Media conducted an investigation in which it allegedly uncovered real financial connections between Celsius and the later collapsed crypto-exchange, FTX.

Basically, Celsius Network allegedly used FTX to purchase its CEL token in 2021 for an amount of around 40 million CEL. They also coincided with a $750 million funding round. 

After Celsius froze its withdrawals, the same company reportedly liquidated millions of dollars of its customers’ CEL through the FTX exchange. These funds were then supposedly used to repay the DeFi loans. 

In this sense, FTX became a creditor of Celsius thanks in part to a $104 million loan. 

At the time, Sam Bankman Fried had tweeted about this, hinting that he was intent on buying what was left of Celsius, except that he himself was arrested for fraud this month.