Celsius Transfers $75M of Ethereum to Staking Service Figment

Celsius Network, a defunct crypto lending platform, transferred 40,928 ETH, or $70 million, to staking service Figment last week, according to data from crypto intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence.

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Over the past week, wallets labeled as Celsius Network have come back online, depositing millions of dollars in ETH in ETH2 Staking Contracts with Figment.

In total, Celsius has sent 30.8K ETH to be deposited, worth $56.98M! pic.twitter.com/J7Ja44C65k

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) May 15, 2023

The transfer was spread across 14 transactions between May 10 and May 12 and put into staking contracts owned by Figment, according to Etherscan. It is considered the largest movement of funds for Celsius since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022. 

Tom Wan, research analyst for 21co — the parent company of 21shares — further confirmed: 

.@CelsiusNetwork has staked 40.9k $ETH via @Figment_io from 10 May – 12 May

Shoutout to @etheraltog for the great find🫡 https://t.co/TfPtLWdLbh pic.twitter.com/stb3kdqEut

— Tom Wan (@tomwanhh) May 15, 2023

Wan noted that this was Celsius’ first movement to Figment after one year, stating that Celsius could have used its own staking pool for the 40 thousand Ether. 

Staking is a process of locking up crypto, such as Ether, for a set amount of time in order to earn rewards for validating transactions and creating blocks on the network. 

While Figment offers around 5.6% of annualized staking rewards, according to its website, Celsius has a staked Ether portfolio and even withdrew some of its funds in April 2023. Celsius has almost $300 thousand in staked ETH at the time of writing, according to Dune Analytics.

Celsius legal battles

The embattled crypto lender filed for bankruptcy on July 14, 2022, and has been exploring plans for restructuring and recovery amid reports that Celsius operated in a Ponzi-scheme manner. Meanwhile, former CEO Alex Mashinsky has been in some legal hot water. 

In January 2023, Mashinsky was sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James — the judge notable for suing Tether and Bitfinex — for defrauding investors. In February 2023, Mashinsky was again sued by creditors, who claimed that the executives cashed out before the platform collapsed. 

While it is too soon to tell what Celsius plans to do with the results of the staked ETH both on and off Figment, the Southern District of New York approved a restructuring plan that allows around 85% of customers to receive 72.5% of their crypto back from the Celsius.