Ripple Labs Wants To Buy Celsius Assets

The parent company behind the Ripple network has expressed interest in purchasing assets belonging to the bankrupt Celsius Network. 

Ripple Looking For M&A Opportunities

A Ripple Labs spokesperson has expressed that the company is considering buying certain assets of the bankrupt crypto lender. However, when asked if Ripple was interested in acquiring Celsius outright, the spokesperson declined to comment. 

The representative stated, 

“We are interested in learning about Celsius and its assets, and whether any could be relevant to our business.”

They have also mentioned that the payment services company is actively looking for strategic mergers and acquisitions opportunities to scale the company. 

Celsius’ Legal Troubles

The Celsius Network has been in a lot of hot water recently, with its CEO Alex Mashinsky drawing in the most criticism. Mashinsky had continued to reassure Celsius customers that everything was okay, even on the brink of bankruptcy. He is also under investigation by a creditor committee set up by the U.S. Trustee department. The lending platform was one of the casualties of the Terra LUNA implosion and had to declare bankruptcy in July after a month of freezing withdrawals. 

On the other hand, Ripple Labs has been faring quite well, despite the SEC lawsuit and the bear market, primarily due to its focus on working with international clients and developing global payment networks. 

Ripple Interested In Celsius Case

Ripple’s legal representatives applied to the bankruptcy court to be represented in the proceedings of the Celsius case, despite not being one of the lending platform’s major creditors. The filings were approved by the court earlier this week. The above comment was made in response to inquiries about the court filings. The representative declined to elaborate further on the matter. 

The bankruptcy filings reveal that Celsius’ assets include digital assets held in custody accounts, loans, a bitcoin mining operation, the platform’s own CEL token, and liquid cash and crypto that the company holds at the moment. Since Ripple Labs has not signed any major deals till now, it should be interesting to see if this interest in the Celsius case actually amounts to something tangible. 

Ripple’s Legal Troubles

Ripple has been going through its own legal issues since 2020 when the Securities and Exchanges Commission sued the crypto payments provider for allegedly operating unregistered securities. The Ripple team has denied these allegations, claiming that XRP is solely traded as a digital currency and not a security. The public consensus is that the lawsuit will settle in Ripple’s favor as the case presented by the SEC is flimsy at best. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.