German fintech Nuri’s bitcoin interest product affected by Celsius withdrawal freeze

Crypto lending platform Celsius’s withdrawal freeze has affected a bitcoin interest product offered by German fintech firm Nuri, according to a Monday announcement.

Nuri, formerly known as Bitwala, debuted the product in May 2021, offering up to 3% interest on bitcoin holdings. Nuri partners with Celsius to offer the accounts to its users.

But the issues at Celsius mean that Nuri can’t provide withdrawals, and the firm has also paused new investments in the product as well.

“For the Nuri Bitcoin Interest Account this means that interest is still accumulated and paid out when these measures are lifted. Until there are further updates, we have also decided to temporarily pause the investing functionality for our Bitcoin Interest Account,” the firm said in a message on its website.

Nuri added that “[w]hile withdrawals and investments for the Bitcoin Interest Account are temporarily paused, all our other banking and investing features are still active and ready to be explored.”

Like numerous other startups contending with a difficult business environment, Nuri recently moved to shrink its staff, laying off 20% of employees at the end of May. Crypto lender company BlockFi announced a roughly 20% headcount reduction on Monday, joining the ranks of other major crypto firms that have undertaken similar moves.

Nuri has raised €42.3 million in funding to date, per Crunchbase.