The troubled crypto lender’s assets will soon be up for auction.
The timeline for the auction of Celsius’s assets has been revealed as per a filing from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
The final bid deadline is October 17, and if necessary, an auction will be held on October 20, 2022.
Former CEO of Celsius Alex Mashinsky allegedly withdrew $10 million from the company’s account back in May, just weeks before the now-defunct crypto lending firm froze customer withdrawals, according to the Financial Times.
A source close to the matter told the FT that “the withdrawal had been pre-planned and was linked to Mashinsky’s estate planning.”
Leading up to the hefty withdrawal, Mashinsky would reportedly withdraw small amounts of crypto for taxes, the source said, and “he consistentl...
The sale hearing, a hearing conducted by the bankruptcy court to approve the proposed transaction, will then be conducted via Zoom on October 28, 2022.
The filing indicates the court anticipates “a large number of expected participants” but does not reveal any of the prospective buyers.
Celsius, which at one point claimed to have over $20 billion of assets under management, first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 2022, revealing a $1.2 billion hole in its balance sheet following months of speculation regarding its financial stability.
Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius, resigned in late September, calling his own presence “a distraction.”
No parties have as of yet announced their intention to bid on the assets.
FTX CEO eyes Celsius assets
One potential suitor could be Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive of crypto exchange FTX.
It was widely reported in late September that SBF was considering bidding on all or some of the bankrupt lender’s assets.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Bankman-Fried’s firm has scooped up the assets of a failed crypto firm. FTX.US, the American subsidiary of FTX, successfully bid for the assets of Voyager Digital in Late September.
The subsidiary paid $1.4 billion for the crypto asset manager, which slid into bankruptcy in July, beating out bids from Binance and Wave Financial.
Bankman-Fried also extended a $400 million credit line to another troubled crypto lender BlockFi back in August 2022.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is the man of the moment in crypto as he has bailed out multiple insolvent companies. Some are calling him Atlas, while some are critical of these moves. Sam answers tough questions from Dan Roberts and Stacy Elliott on FTX's bailout strategy, the controversial Voyager loan, his market outlook, marketing mistakes by crypto lenders, FTX competitors Binance and Coinbase, his political donations, and what he's learned about management. Watch and make sure to subscribe to the gm podcast on Apple or Spotify.
Despite the billionaire's historically aggressive approach to picking up distressed crypto assets, he still wants to take a relatively careful approach to bailouts in a conversation on Decrypt’s gm podcast, saying: “There is a limit to how much we want to be throwing good money after bad.”
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