Celsius must return $44 million in crypto to users, judge orders: Bloomberg

Quick Take

  • Chief Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn ruled that the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius must return millions of funds to its users.
  • Celsius moved more than $200,000 in assets into custody accounts before its bankruptcy this summer, which had opened the possibility that it can claim ownership of those funds. 

Crypto lender Celsius Network must return around $44 million worth of crypto back to customers, even if it didn't enter Celsius's interest-bearing accounts. 

Chief Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn issued the order on Wednesday after parties involved in the case concluded that funds belong to users, not Celsius, Bloomberg reported.

Celsius moved more than $200,000 in assets into custody accounts before its bankruptcy this summer, which opened the possibility that it could claim ownership of those funds. However, Glenn ruled that Celsius doesn't have to return crypto if the transfers were less than $7,500, equaling about $11 million in assets. 

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Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, when the firm revealed it had between $1 billion and $10 billion in liabilities and claimed more than 100,000 creditors. 

Earlier this week, Celsius won an extension on its exclusivity period for the right to submit a Chapter 11 reorganization plan until Feb. 15.


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About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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