Celsius distributes $2B crypto to 172 thousand lenders
Insolvent crypto lender Celsius has announced that most eligible lenders have collected their liquid cryptocurrency distributions from two of its distribution agents: payments giant PayPal and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
In a recent court filing, Kirkland & Ellis, the legal team representing Celsius, provided an update on the lender's distributions as outlined in the restructuring plan. This comes after Celsius announced last week that it had successfully emerged from bankruptcy in July 2022.
According to Kirkland and Ellis, crypto distributions in the US will be facilitated through PayPal, while overseas holders will be managed by Coinbase as the distribution agent. The lawyers announced that $2 billion worth of crypto was claimed, including 20,255.66 Bitcoin (BTC) and 301,338.77 Ethereum (ETH).
“As of this date, a significant number of holders have successfully collected Liquid Cryptocurrency from PayPal/Venmo and Coinbase: nearly 75% of BTC/ETH distributed through PayPal/Venmo and collected through Coinbase.”
However, he explained that account holders who request to opt out of the class claim settlement will not receive any liquid crypto distributions “until this claim is resolved”.
In addition, Coinbase mentioned that certain account holders may face problems receiving their distribution if Coinbase or PayPal flag any anti-money laundering (AML) or compliance issues.
There has been speculation in the crypto industry about how the actions outlined in the restructuring plan could affect the broader crypto market.
On January 5, Cointelegraph reported that Celsius has begun recalling and rebalancing its crypto assets to ensure timely distribution of creditors.
However, as blockchain analytics firm Nansen highlighted at the time, about a third of the pending withdrawal queue belongs to Celsius.
Related: Celsius Appraisal Advisor approves the value of borrowers' assets and liabilities
In the year In October 2023, Celsius asked for approval of the restructuring plan, which would see creditors paid before the end of 2023.
Meanwhile, the former CEO of the now-defunct crypto lender, Alex Mashinsky, is scheduled to go on trial in September 2024 for bankruptcy.
However, his legal team recently faced scrutiny for a possible conflict of interest as they represented Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive of bankruptcy exchange FTX.
In the year
The U.S. government has called Curcio's trial and jurors may ask questions about a possible conflict of interest and why both attorneys were involved in the Bankman-Fried and Mashinsky cases.
Magazine: GBTC drops BTC share by 21%, Celsius pulls out of bankruptcy, and more: Hodler's Digest, January 28 – February 3
