Celsius reportedly seeks advice from lawyers on restructuring

Published at: June 15, 2022

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has onboarded restructuring lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to find potential solutions to the firm’s financial woes. 

The firm is reportedly looking for other strategic alternatives, such as a financial restructuring, apart from its attempts to solve its current problems. The report also noted that Celsius is trying to find investors who would be able to provide financing options for the crypto lending company.

Citing extreme market conditions, Celsius paused withdrawals from its platform on Monday. Amid the withdrawal freeze, the firm has unstaked around $247 million in wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) from liquidity protocol Aave and sent it to the FTX exchange. Apart from its wBTC, the firm has also sent $74.5 million in Ether (ETH) to FTX.

As rumors of Celsius’ insolvency proliferate, crypto exchange Nexo extended its hands to the lending platform. The crypto firm recently told Cointelegraph that the Nexo, along with its partners and affiliates, is able to acquire a part or all of Celsius’ outstanding “collateralized loan receivables.”

Related: Celsius (CEL) price gains 600%+, but analysts cite exchange error and a massive short squeeze

To quench holder fears amid the situation at Celsius, stablecoin issuer Tether announced that the current events surrounding the lending platform have “no impact” on Tether’s reserves. According to Tether, while they do have an investment in Celsius, it doesn’t have an impact on the stability of its reserves. The announcement also highlighted that the situation at Celsius is a result of “market volatility.”

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Binance also paused BTC withdrawals on its platform on Monday, just as the Celsius pause started. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao assured holders that their funds were safe and the exchange would open withdrawals soon. Sure enough, on the same day, the crypto exchange resumed withdrawals.

Tags
Law
Related Posts
Meet the crypto payment gateway startup that strives to become the Stripe of Africa
A crypto payments gateway says that it now makes it easy for online merchants in Africa to accept Bitcoin at the checkout. Paychant says its tool can be easily integrated into websites, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop and an array of other online stores with a single line of code. This gives retailers access to a growing number of consumers who want to pay using cryptocurrencies. According to Paychant, its infrastructure is simple, secure and convenient — and is geared toward small and large businesses alike. Nonprofit organizations can also accept crypto donations with ease. Customizable widgets are offered that can be …
Technology / July 6, 2021
Tether hit with 500 Bitcoin ransom demand — But says it won't pay
Hackers have threatened to release sensitive company documents supposedly belonging to USDT stablecoin issuer Tether unless the firm sends a 500 Bitcoin (BTC) ransom to a specified address. As revealed by the official Twitter account for Tether on Sunday, hackers purportedly threatened to leak documents that would “harm the Bitcoin ecosystem” if their ransom demands were not met. Tether has already stated that it will not pay the ransom, which amounts to a dollar value of $23.8 million at the time of publication. The firm tweeted: “Today we also received a ransom demand for 500 BTC to be sent to …
Technology / March 1, 2021
Ethereum white paper predicted DeFi but missed NFTs: Vitalik Buterin
Rounding up the last decade, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin revisited his predictions made over the years, showcasing a knack for being right about abstract ideas than on-production software development issues. Buterin started the Twitter thread by addressing his article dated Jul. 23, 2013 in which he highlighted Bitcoin's (BTC) key benefits — internationality and censorship resistance. Buterin foresaw Bitcoin’s potential in protecting the citizens’ buying power in countries such as Iran, Argentina, China and Africa. However, Buterin also noticed a rise in stablecoin adoption as he saw Argentinian businesses operating in Tether (USDT). He backed up his decade-old ideas around …
Adoption / Jan. 2, 2022
Crypto inheritance: Are HODLers doomed to rely on centralized options?
Self-sovereignty is a core principle in the cryptocurrency space: Investors need to rely on a trustless, decentralized network instead of a central entity that has been known to devalue the holdings of others. One shortcoming associated with self-sovereignty, however, is inheritance. An estimated 4 million Bitcoin (BTC) has been lost over time and now sits in inaccessible wallets. How many of those coins belong to HODLers who passed away without sharing access to their wallets with anyone else is unknown? Some believe Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated 1 million BTC fortune hasn’t been touched for this very reason: No one else had …
Adoption / May 23, 2022
Ukraine netted $70M in crypto donations since start of Russia conflict
Ukraine has received over $70 million in the form of cryptocurrencies since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, providing the nation with military equipment and humanitarian assistance. The figures came from a Feb. 24 report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis, which found the majority of the funds to have come in the form of Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). ETH donors led the way with $28.9 million given, while donors of BTC and Tether (USDT) chipped in $22.8 million and $11.59 million respectively. Donations have also come in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), such as UkraineDAO’s auction of a …
Blockchain / Feb. 27, 2023