Celsius Network Conditionally Not to Enforce Debtors to Pay for Outstanding Loans

Beleaguered digital currency lender Celsius Network has revealed that it was not planning to ask its debtors to pay their outstanding loans during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

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Over the weekend, Reuters reported that with the bankruptcy that the firm has filed, there is no plan to enforce payment despite the need to settle its creditors.

As reiterated by the firm through a filing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York, penalties and interests will also not be levied on its debtors as part of its plans to get back on its feet.

Celsius Network is the first amongst many crypto unicorns to suspend withdrawals as the aftermath of the Terra ecosystem collapse, and the extreme crypto market plunge became too much to bear. The crypto lender tried to settle its financial woes internally but eventually declared bankruptcy in July.

At the time of its bankruptcy, the company said it had about a $1.19 billion deficit on its balance sheet. However, this sum has been shown to exceed this amount. 

The firm’s assets and liabilities are estimated to be between $1 billion and $10 billion. Celsius Network has had it rough since pausing withdrawals, and the firm rebuffed one of the earliest offers of acquisition from Swiss competitor, Nexo.

In a bid to solve its woes and bring a speedy recovery to all of its stakeholders, Alex Mashinsky resigned his role as the Chief Executive Officer of the platform, taking a background role to help get succour to all involved. 

The downfall of Celsius Network, as well as that of Babel Finance, affected Zipmex which also suspended withdrawals and declared bankruptcy in Singapore. The cataclysmic event emanating from the LUNA crash has affected more crypto unicorns than Celsius Network, Babel Finance, and Zipmex.

With analysts projecting revival in the next couple of years, exchanges like Binance and FTX have been aiding most distressed firms.

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Celsius Network Conditionally Not to Enforce Debitors to Pay for Outstanding Loans

Beleaguered digital currency lender Celsius Network has revealed that it was not planning to ask its debtors to pay their outstanding loans during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

CEL2.jpg

Over the weekend, Reuters reported that with the bankruptcy that the firm has filed, there is no plan to enforce payment despite the need to settle its creditors.

As reiterated by the firm through a filing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York, penalties and interests will also not be levied on its debtors as part of its plans to get back on its feet.

Celsius Network is the first amongst many crypto unicorns to suspend withdrawals as the aftermath of the Terra ecosystem collapse, and the extreme crypto market plunge became too much to bear. The crypto lender tried to settle its financial woes internally but eventually declared bankruptcy in July.

At the time of its bankruptcy, the company said it had about a $1.19 billion deficit on its balance sheet. However, this sum has been shown to exceed this amount. 

The firm’s assets and liabilities are estimated to be between $1 billion and $10 billion. Celsius Network has had it rough since pausing withdrawals, and the firm rebuffed one of the earliest offers of acquisition from Swiss competitor, Nexo.

In a bid to solve its woes and bring a speedy recovery to all of its stakeholders, Alex Mashinsky resigned his role as the Chief Executive Officer of the platform, taking a background role to help get succour to all involved. 

The downfall of Celsius Network, as well as that of Babel Finance, affected Zipmex which also suspended withdrawals and declared bankruptcy in Singapore. The cataclysmic event emanating from the LUNA crash has affected more crypto unicorns than Celsius Network, Babel Finance, and Zipmex.

With analysts projecting revival in the next couple of years, exchanges like Binance and FTX have been aiding most distressed firms.

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Celsius CEO Resigns amid Broader Bankruptcy Tango

Alex Mashinsky, the Chief Executive Officer of the embattled crypto lending firm Celsius Network, has tendered his resignation as the head of the firm, effective immediately.

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As contained in a Press Release from the company, the resignation letter was handed over to the Company’s Special Committee of the Board of Directors.

The resignation letter sent by Mashinsky reads:

“Effective immediately, please accept my resignation as CEO of Celsius Network Ltd, as well as my directorships and other positions at each of its direct and indirect subsidiaries, with the exception of my director position at Celsius Network Ltd. I regret that my continued role as CEO has become an increasing distraction, and I am very sorry about the difficult financial circumstances members of our community are facing. Since the pause, I have worked tirelessly to help the Company and its advisors put forward a viable plan for the Company to return coins to creditors in the fairest and most efficient way. I am committed to helping the Company continue to flesh out and promote that plan in order to help account holders become whole.”

Mashinsky co-founded the Celsius Network alongside Daniel Leon back in 2017, and the firm grew to become one of the most celebrated crypto lending platforms in the crypto world. 

The company’s operation hit the rocks in June when it halted withdrawals and finally declared bankruptcy after it realized that internal restructuring and staff layoffs would be insufficient in helping to solve its liquidity woes. 

The resignation of Mashinsky is coming at a time when the company is neck deep into bankruptcy proceedings, and the former CEO said his exit would position him in a better place to help every stakeholder get the best out of the company in the end.

Unlike Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, another bankrupt player, is on its way to being acquired by FTX after the exchange behemoth won a bid to acquire it for $1.4 billion.

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Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky Involves Untimely Trading Prior to Crash: FT

The fall of renowned crypto lending platform Celsius Network has shed much light on the wobbled operations of the company in the months leading to the eventual halt in withdrawals. 

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Alex Mashinsky and the Trading Funds Misappropriation 

According to a Financial Times (FT) report, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Alex Mashinsky, has been practically handling the firm’s trading activities since January. The report highlighted that the role assumption fueled the rancour that eventually made Celsius’ Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at the time, Frank van Etten.

Frank’s LinkedIn profile revealed that he left the company back in February, about four months before Celsius Network eventually halted withdrawals and the ensuing bankruptcy saga it is currently embroiled in.

According to the sources who spoke to the FT, Alex Mashinsky made some decisions related to the projection that the United States Federal Reserve would increase interest rates. While taking control of the firm’s trading activities was one of his actions, he also informed staff as early as January 21 that there were plans to cut costs.

Sources reportedly told the Financial Times that Mashinsky ordered the traders to “massively trade the book using bad information,” while another said that “he was slugging around huge chunks of bitcoin.”

Despite the influence Mashinsky notably wielded in the firm, the FT report noted that he was vocal about the fact that “he wasn’t running the trading desk.” While the actual figures of losses due to the influence he wielded remain unknown, the FT report shows it was worth millions of dollars.

Celsius Network and the Huge Debt Profile

Earlier, Blockchain.News reported that the latest coin report from Celsius Network revealed a bigger than reported hole in its balance sheet. The company revealed in its bankruptcy filing that its debt profile was $1.2 billion, but with recently published data, this figure was discovered to be worth $2.8 billion.

Celsius Network is deeply embroiled in the bankruptcy hearings, and ideas on how it will navigate these dark times are unclear.

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Celsius expands funding round to $750M, tips $7B to $10B valuation in 2022

Crypto lending firm Celsius Network has expanded its $400 million Series B round from October to $750 million as a result of oversubscription in the firm’s capital raise.

The company is now valued at $3.5 billion following the raise and CEO Alex Mashinsky told Cointelegraph he expects that figure to “double or triple” next year which would see it valued between $7B and $10.5B

The firm previously closed the round on Oct. 12 amid a period of intense scrutiny placed on crypto lending firms from local regulators. Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky emphasized at the time that “it’s not $400 million. It’s the credibility that comes with the people who wrote those checks.”

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Nov. 25, Celsius outlined that new funds will go towards expanding into new markets and product offerings, along with building its recently announced centralized finance (CeFi) to decentralized finance (DeFi) bridging project “CelsiusX”.

Celsius will also allocate funds to improving the “utility of its platform” and its commitment to sustainable Bitcoin (BTC) mining.

Speaking on the $750 million funding round with Cointelegraph, Mashinsky said that the fact that the round was oversubscribed shows a “very good indication” of the strength of the Celsius brand, which he said was user focused.

“If you think of what we do, which is pay yield to the community, you know, we paid over $1 billion to our community and we basically get that yield from exchanges and institutions. And most of our competitors […] they charge the customers fees and give all that money to their shareholders,” he said.

Celsisus outlined plans earlier this week to invest an additional $300 million into scaling its BTC mining operations in North America, taking its total spend on the sector to $500 million.

Mashinsky attributed his bullish estimate of Celsius’ value in 2022 to the firm’s ability to provide services in almost every sector of crypto, as he highlighted the growth potential of the business:

“I think that by itself it is worth several times what we invested. So between that and the growth of our core business, you know, the yield business, the lending business or the mining business, the DeFi business, all these things are obviously huge.”

The Celsius CEO also pointed to the $115 million acquisition of crypto custody platform GK8 at the start of this month, and revealed the firm has plans to enter the NFT sector in the near future, although it won’t be launching a marketplace as he feels there are already too many similar platforms out there.

“We think we can help kind of expand the category into other use cases or other ways of, you know, unlocking value for brands,” he said.

Related: Crypto lending firms on the hot seat: New regulations are coming?

Questioned on the firm’s $20 million crowdfunding round from August 2020, in which more than 1000 investors from the Celsius community backed the firm. Mashinsky said the firm was valued at around $150 million at the time, and while investors are currently unable to sell their holdings, it has turned out to be a handsome investment for them:

“Basically those 1000 people made on average, what is it, 25 times of their money or something like that? Obviously, it’s not liquid, they can’t sell it tomorrow. But we think that they are super happy.”