Celsius, the crypto lending company that has declared bankruptcy, has initiated the process of selling its altcoin assets and converting them into Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), as per the approval of a U.S. judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings. The company transferred these assets to FalconX, which then facilitated their transfer to Binance. In addition, Celsius made a deposit of 186,149 BONE tokens valued at $235,000 into OKEx.
According to Lookonchain, an analytics firm specializing in blockchain, Celsius has started selling its altcoin assets. The company has successfully sold various tokens, including 1.27 million LINK tokens worth $8.5 million, 2.83 million SNX tokens valued at $7.84 million, 12,597 BNB tokens worth $3 million, 4.45 million 1INCH tokens amounting to $2.26 million, 8.53 million ZRX tokens worth $1.9 million, and 439,000 FTT tokens valued at $713,000.
Arrest of Celsius’s Former CEO Complicates Bankruptcy Situation
On July 6, Lookonchain highlighted that Celsius seemed to be initiating the exchange of altcoins for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The majority of the altcoins were transferred to a specific wallet address, “0x4131”. Furthermore, the exchange transferred 1,393 StaFi tokens (rETH) to Wintermute Trading and received an equivalent amount of 1,393 ETH in return.
Celsius had a significant holding of altcoins on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, valued at approximately $164.5 million. Out of this amount, nearly $25 million worth of coins have been sold as of today.
The largest altcoin holding of Celsius, Chainlink (LINK), could potentially face considerable selling pressure, given that other altcoins are being sold. At present, LINK is trading at $6.68, reflecting a decline of over 2%.
Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2022 due to a shortfall in customer funds, resulting in temporary withdrawal suspensions. It was reported that the company received authorization from the U.S. judge to liquidate its altcoin holdings, which were valued at around $170 million, into BTC and ETH starting from July 1.
However, this development comes at a time when Celsius’s former CEO, Alex Mashinsky, was recently arrested by the Department of Justice (DOJ). According to reports, Mashinsky faces multiple charges, including securities fraud, commodities fraud, and wire fraud, adding further complexity to the company’s situation.