Celsius receives court approval for bidding proposal, final judgement expected Dec. 22

CeFi lending platform Celsius Network has received approval for its bidding proposal, and the court has set the final sale hearing for Dec. 22.

Celsius which filed for bankruptcy on July 13, has been exploring all possible options to refund up to $4.7 billion it owes to creditors. Efforts to raise additional funding from investors or gains from its mining business have yielded little result.

As a last resort, the bankrupt crypto lender filed for a bidding proposal on Oct. 3 seeking the court’s approval to sell its remaining assets.

Celsius earlier set the auction date for Oct. 20, but opposition from the U.S. Trustee moved the motion to a later date.

After due consideration by the bankruptcy court, Judge Martin Glenn has approved Celsius’ bidding proposal, with the final sales hearing scheduled for Dec. 22, 2022.

Judge Gleen, however, asked the U.S. Trustee to appoint a neutral Consumer Privacy Ombudsman to ensure that customers’ data are adequately protected through the sales process.

According to the sales schedule, interested parties have up to Dec. 12 to submit their bidding request. A possible auction has been scheduled for Dec. 15, while the final sales hearing will happen on Dec. 22.

However, the assets to be offered for sale will be subject to the independent examiner’s report expected on Dec. 10. The court earlier asked an independent examiner to access Celsius’ financial records and ascertain assets that belonged to custody customers and those that belong to Celsius’ bankruptcy estate.

Concerns over consumer data

The U.S. Trustee’s call for the appointment of a Consumer Privacy Ombudsman reiterates the need to protect Celsius customers who were recently doxed.

Earlier on Oct. 5, Celsius published a 14,000-page document spelling out the names of its creditors and their transactions.

Sadly, the document was recreated on a website, making it easier for bad actors to steal customers’ data.

The crypto community has criticized Celsius for not treating customers’ details with care and ruled it as a downside of the KYC process obtainable in CeFi platforms.