Celsius sold off $250 million in ETH and other assets in 30 days

Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius has sold off $250 million worth of digital assets, including Ethereum, in the last 30 days, according to on-chain data.

Crypto sleuth Apes_Prologue reported that Ether accounted for $243 million, or 97%, of the bankrupt firm’s selling activities during the period.

Separately, blockchain analytical firm Peckshield confirmed that the defunct lender transferred over 10,000 units of ETH, worth approximately $24 million, to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and cryptocurrency brokerage platform FalconX during the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Apes_Prologue added that Celsius also dumped over $3 million in stablecoins, $1.3 million of Chainlink’s LINK, and $1.4 million of Pax Gold. Other assets the firm sold include around $150,000 of Polygon’s MATIC and Avalanche’s AVAX tokens, respectively.

Why is Celsius selling?

Jef Breed, the founder of venture capital firm Breed VC,  explained that Celsius might be dumping its ETH bag to capitalize MiningCo, a Bitcoin mining company that would be owned by creditors of the failed firm.

Breed suggested that Fahreint (NewCo), the leading bidder in Celsius’ initial bankruptcy auction, encountered regulatory obstacles in executing its plans for Bitcoin mining and Ethereum staking services. Consequently, the bankrupt company shifted its focus to a mining venture overseen by MiningCo.

As a result, Breed inferred that the firm had to liquidate a portion of its ETH holdings to secure $250 million in fiat capital, a different approach from the initial plan requiring $450 million in liquid cryptocurrency for Fahreint’s proposed strategy.

What next for ETH price?

Observers believe that Celsius’s selling activity might have inhibited ETH’s price from soaring recently.

Data from CryptoSlate shows that ETH’s price has considerably struggled against other large-cap cryptocurrencies, such as Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche, whose values have rapidly risen during the last 30 days.

For context, SOL’s price increased by around 20% during the last seven days, while ETH is up by only 2% during the same period.

However, market analysts suggest that “the selling pressure may be complete and ETH could rip up over the coming months with the spot ETH ETF narrative on the horizon.” ETH is trading for $2230 as of press time.