Celsius, one of the biggest companies with a staked ETH portfolio, has been active in wallet transfers during its ongoing bankruptcy and restructuring process. The company has moved almost $900 million worth of ETH over the last week.
Celsius’ Ether Movements
According to data shared by blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, Celsius transferred around $20 million worth of ETH to Wintermute OTC and Custody Withdrawals. Additionally, the company transferred 30,800 ETH, which was worth around $57 million at the time, to a smart contract called “Figment ETH2 Beacon Depositor 1.”
This transaction to Figment, a non-custodial service, was one of the largest movements of funds for the crypto lender since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July.
Arkham also observed that Celsius unstaked the $779 million worth of ETH it held with the liquid staking derivatives protocol, Lido, which enabled withdrawals on May 15 with a protocol upgrade to v2. Many entities that withdrew their staked ETH have already started re-staking them since mid-April.
Simon Dixon, a Bitcoin pioneer and Celsius creditor, speculated that the withdrawn ether might be used as part of the platform’s restructuring and creditor repayment plans or that the company could be “lining up for staking directly without Lido in the middle.”
The Story So Far
Recently, Celsius enabled eligible users to withdraw the remaining 6% of distributable custody assets from the platform after court approval. This move was viewed as a sign of progress for the now-defunct crypto lender, which froze user withdrawals last June due to tremendous pressure after the sudden implosion of blockchain project Terra and the subsequent crypto market meltdown.
Celsius filed for consolidating US and UK entities amidst poor record-keeping allegations and glaring deficiencies in its internal systems. Its founder Alex Mashinsky was accused of defrauding investors out of billions of dollars in crypto by hiding the “failing health” of the lending platform. The executive filed a response seeking to dismiss the New York State complaint against him.
