In place of the previously retained legal firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, the corporation has reportedly engaged lawyers to provide advice on options, including filing for bankruptcy.
Having been established in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis LLP advertises itself as an international law company that represents clients in private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and other business transactions.
The legal team that helped Voyager Digital file for bankruptcy last week, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, has apparently been retained by cryptocurrency loan platform Celsius to advise on restructuring possibilities.
Bankruptcy
The legal team has also been appointed to represent Voyager Digital as general bankruptcy counsel during its bankruptcy proceedings.
A few days after halting trading, withdrawals, and deposits because of liquidity issues, Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy on July 5 in the Southern District Court of New York.
Despite recurring worries that the cryptocurrency lender would take a similar course, Celsius has continued to pay off its loans to decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols, most recently repaying Aave for USDC 20 million.
On Sunday, blockchain analytics company Peckshield reported on the most recent loan repayment, posting a snapshot of the 20 million USDC transfer from a Celsius wallet to Aave Protocol v2.
According to the DeFi tracking tool Zapper, Celsius still owes Aave $215 million in debt, which is made up of $130 million in USDC, $82,500 in Ren (REN), and $85.2 million in Dai (DAI).
The lending platform released more than $500 million in Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) collateral last week when it paid off its final $41.2 million obligations to Maker protocol on Thursday.
For Celsius’ depositors, who have been unable to access their cryptocurrency assets since withdrawals were stopped on June 13 and worry about losing their money if the business were to file for bankruptcy, paying down debt has been regarded as a plus.
According to cryptocurrency attorney Joni Pirovich, last week’s repayment of Celsius’ loan position would eventually benefit its users since it would free up funds that could be utilized to process withdrawal requests.
Pirovich went on to argue that even if Celsius files for bankruptcy, its clients will still gain from it repaying its loan and handing up the collateral.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/07/11/after-bankruptcy-celsius-changed-legal-team-know-more/