Celsius Warns Stabilizing Liquidity ‘Will Take Time’ As Lead Investor Proposes Recovery Plan

In a move that sent shockwaves across the crypto industry, Celsius froze withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts last Sunday, citing “extreme market conditions.”

The decision played a significant part in the decline of the broader market, with the price of Bitcoin tanking below $18,000 over the weekend.

At the time of writing, BTC is up 4.4% over the day though, trading back above $20,000, per CoinMarketCap.

Recovery plan for Celsius

Celsius’ lead investor BnkToTheFuture has meanwhile offered to assist the firm by deploying “financial innovation” similar to that used to save crypto exchange Bitfinex.

BnkToTheFuture is a global online investment platform that allows investors to invest in financial technology companies, funds and other new alternative financial products. In June 2020, Celsius launched an equity offering with BnkToTheFuture, raising $20.46 million through more than 1,000 investors.

“I believe traditional finance will not have a timely solution for Celsius as we saw in the past with Mt. Gox that still remains unresolved 10 years later,” BnkToTheFuture CEO Simon Dixon wrote in a blog post.

Bitfinex turned to UNUS SED LEO token (LEO) in May 2019 to raise $1 billion, selling the freshly-minted token in exchange for Tether (USDT) to replace $850 million the exchange lost to the Panama-based bank Crypto Capital.

According to Dixon, “that was resolved within 9 months and worked out very well for depositors.”

Dixon said he wouldn’t disclose specific details of the suggested recovery plan “before Alex and the Celsius board are ready,” adding that “it’s my position to offer solutions as we have the experience, licenses and technology to do so.”

“Our industry has come back stronger from every disaster and now is the time for us to offer support in a bottom up way in compliance with the regulations we have always followed,” wrote Dixon.

Dixon’s offer came hot on the heels of reports that Canadian pension fund CDPQ (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) and New York-based WestCap Group—the companies that led Celsius $750 million Series B funding round last year—are unlikely to come to the rescue of the embattled crypto lender.