IT and blockchain solutions firm Core Scientific has shut down 37,000 crypto mining rigs it had hosted for Celsius, a cryptocurrency lender. The two companies came to this mutual agreement because Celsius had [gone bankrupt](/news/article/celsius-bankruptcy-protection), and it could no longer afford the massive mining rig farm.

Core Scientific first brought up this complaint in October when it [claimed](https://cases.stretto.com/public/x191/11749/PLEADINGS/1174910202280000000005.pdf) that Celsius had not been keeping up with its due bill payments. The IT firm still managed to hold on to its initial hosting contract for a further two-month period, but eventually filed a motion to cancel the contract between the two companies on 28 December.

According to the information brought up in the court, holding on to the contract was neglecting Core Scientific of about $2 million per month in potential revenue. 

Furthermore, Core Scientific claimed to have covered around $7 million in bills left unpaid by Celsius, but it couldn't "shoulder the burden of Celsius’ unpaid costs” anymore. The rising energy costs due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis also played a role in Core Scientific’s decision.

Finally, the mining rigs, all 37,000 of them, were shut down on 3 January, 2023, with no plans of restarting them any time soon.

## But why hasn’t Celsius been able to pay its bills?

A few months ago, Celsius filed for bankruptcy; hence, it couldn't afford to pay for the 37,000 mining rigs. The main reason behind the firm's bankruptcy was the downfall of the crypto market itself, as it was tightly correlated with Celsius' business model.

When your main course of business relies on lending cryptocurrency to others on highly lenient loan terms, you’re bound to get hit hard if the value of those cryptocurrencies plummets. That’s exactly what happened to Celsius. With the [crypto market crash](/news/article/crypto-crash) in 2022, along with the entire [Terra Luna debacle](/news/article/terra-luna-collapse), it would’ve taken a miracle for Celsius to have survived.

## A bad year for miners!

2022 served as a horrendous year for the crypto industry, especially for miners. Along with the market crash of major cryptocurrencies, the Russia-Ukraine crisis has also led to increased power costs. Both of these reasons combined have led many crypto miners to lose significant value in their share price.


red image of core scientific ceo and closed sign

Core Scientific Shuts Celsius Mining Rigs 

The ongoing [Celsius](/news/article/celsius-data-breach) bankruptcy case saw a new development this week as US judge Martin Glenn delivered a ruling. He issued a direction that the firm must pay back $50 million worth of crypto assets to users' custody accounts. 

The ruling during the hearing on Wednesday came after [Celsius](https://celsius.network/) stakeholders and advisers concluded that custody assets belong to customers, not the company.

## Verdict applies to $44 million custody assets

As per the [filing](https://cases.stretto.com/public/x191/11749/PLEADINGS/1174909012280000000022.pdf) that was made in September, the company owes roughly $44 million. However, that is said to represent only a small portion of the total debts of the firm.

The filing also shows that the company has around 58,300 users with about $210 million in withholding and [custody accounts](/news/article/celsius-network). The recent ruling by Judge Glenn applies only to the custody assets of 15,680 users.  

## Pending decision on interest-bearing accounts

Earlier, the bankrupt crypto lender also asked for the judge's consent to sell $18 million worth of virtual assets from interest-bearing accounts. The users deposited the amount in these accounts before the lender filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, Judge Glenn is yet to give a verdict on this request. 

The US judge says he wants the Celsius bankruptcy case to move forward as quickly as possible. According to a [Bloomberg report](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/celsius-judge-orders-return-of-user-crypto-worth-50-million?sref=17Td6NBb&leadSource=uverify%20wall), he also announced that he wants creditors to get back "as much as they possibly can" and "as soon as they possibly can".

This pending decision is crucial for the case because Celsius might claim these assets. There were more than $200 million in custody accounts in September. However, a large part of the holdings was transferred from the interest-bearing funds just before the company filed for [bankruptcy](/news/article/celsius-bankruptcy-protection). That’s why the rules of preferential transfers may benefit the company. This decision could also set a legal precedent in bankruptcy cases.



red picture with celsius logo and the word "bankrupt"

Celsius Bankruptcy: Judge Orders Return of $50m

[Celsius network](https://celsius.network/) was recently accused of withdrawing large sums of money before the bankruptcy filing. There is a development in the Celsius data breach, as the document containing its client information has been publicised. It confirms that the company’s executives cashed out around $17 million just before [filing for bankruptcy](/news/article/celsius-bankruptcy-protection). 

The [document](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1M2QNrghkgBg3T2ZkRVVD47QpjgR8r6HB) on the internet contains information about the crypto lender’s clients. There are details about the names, emails, and crypto assets that the clients own. Through this, anyone can verify how many assets their customers have with them.

## Crypto lender withdrew $17m before bankruptcy

The executive body of the [crypto asset](/news/article/celsius-crypto-news) lending company withdrew large sums before filing bankruptcy protection. Among them, former CSO Daniel Leon and former CEO Alex Mashinsky are the top names. They allegedly cashed out BTC, ETH, CEL, and USDC tokens from their accounts. 

This was before the company announced bankruptcy and suspended its customers’ withdrawal. Other than that, the document does not show other notable withdrawals. 

## Customer.io accused of Celsius data breach

Earlier, the crypto lending firm admitted to the [Celsius](/news/article/celsius-network) data breach. The bankrupt firm warned its clients that the breach occurred through a third-party platform. Allegedly, an individual from the email delivery service provider, [Customer.io](https://customer.io/), was responsible for the violation. However, initially, the company downplayed the risks of the breach and later warned its customers through email. 

In [response](https://customer.io/blog/update-to-compromised-email-addresses-incident/) to the incident, the third-party platform blamed an engineer in management who had authorised access. He compromised the client details by providing them to cybercriminals. 

The firm further maintained that it was an individual’s actions and that the firm itself is not responsible. Meanwhile, the same platform was also behind the compromised emails of the NFT marketplace, [OpenSea](https://opensea.io/).



Celsius data breach reveals exec’s withdrawing $17m

A noticeable [Bitcoin](/coins/btc) price crash happened during the weekend, pulling Ethereum, Ripple and other altcoins with it. 

There were two main causes for the Bitcoin price crash; one resides in the announcement of the Celsius Network about halting all of its client withdrawals, while the other is that investors are pretty scared of the Federal Reserves’ next move.

Falling below $24,000 on Monday, Bitcoin found itself at its lowest level since December 2020, as traders are dumping crypto amidst a wider sell-off in risk assets.

The top cryptocurrency went down by 13.72% in the last 24 hours to $23,751.61 at the time of writing. In the last seven days, the Bitcoin price has fallen by 24.44%.

The brutal market downturn seems to have started with fresh inflation concerns about Federal Reserve acting more aggressively to contain soaring inflation. 

## Altcoins Take a Stumble

According to [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/), during the last 24 hours, Ethereum went down by 18.16% to $1,198, while BNB fell by 14.97%, Cardano by 13.57 and XRP by 11.89%. 

Also, Celsius Network, one of the biggest crypto exchanges said that “due to extreme market conditions”, it is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts. 

Even though Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky tried to tweet away the fears of the Luna crisis impacting the exchange by promising Celsius had “minimal exposure” to Luna and UST, we suspect that last month’s crash of Do Kwan’s Terra empire shook investors’ confidence within the crypto market whose market cap fell below the $1 trillion mark to 977 billion.

Edul Patel Co-Founder and CEO of crypto investment platform Mudrex,  commented the cryptocurrency market “has been under pressure from the Federal Reserve, hiking the interest rates to combat inflation over the past few months. 

“Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most cryptocurrencies suffered losses over the weekend after a broad sell-off following the data showing US inflation hitting a 40-year high,” he said.


Bitcoin price crash amid ‘extreme market conditions’

According to Celsius, they have filed a counter-complaint against defendants Jason Stone and his business KeyFi  due to incompetence, deception, and conversion. It seeks to require the defendants to turn over valuable assets stolen from them and pay damages and restitution for the substantial injuries the defendants have caused through their blatant breaches of duty. 

## Defendants are thieves

The lender, Celsius, continued by stating that Stone's majority-owned corporate vehicle could not effectively deploy coins and appeared to have lost thousands of their coins due to terrible mismanagement. Furthermore, the defendants were not just inept but also thieves. 

[Celsius](/news/article/celsius-bankruptcy-protection) said that the defendants stole millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies from their wallets and blockchain addresses by moving them to wallets owned by the defendants, based on information and belief.

The company additionally says that Stone and his company used its coins to purchase hundreds" of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and then stole the NFTs they obtained with Celsius' coins by transferring them to wallets that they own or control.

## Ponzi scheme

Celsius' lawsuit follows Stone's original critique. Stone referred to the company as a Ponzi scheme in the complaint filed in early July. He stated that the company manipulated the price of its native coin CEL with customer monies. Stone further said that it lost a significant amount of money because it failed to hedge against the risks posed by its activities. 

According to Stone's complaint, the coin price swings have utterly disrupted them and damaged its capacity to pay its depositors. 

The company only accepted deposits in Bitcoin and Ether, the two cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalisation, implying that when the values of these two coins rose faster than the prices of other tokens, the corporation found itself owing more to its clients.  This occurred because the firm included other currencies in its customer reward mechanism. 

Stone reportedly claimed the crypto lender owed him millions of dollars in compensation.





Celsius accuses KeyFi of stealing crypto

Even though we recently wrote about [Celsius’ possibility of getting back on track](/news/article/celsius-news-new-lawyers), the company has decided to file for bankruptcy protection.

According to the [official announcement](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220713005911/en/Celsius-Network-Initiates-Financial-Restructuring-to-Stabilize-Business-and-Maximize-Value-for-All-Stakeholders), the faltered company filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 protection and announced the initiation of a financial restructuring.

Previously Celsius asserted it would focus on stabilisation of its business by restructuring in a way “that maximizes value for all stakeholders.” It then confirmed having $167 million in cash in order to support operations until everything is finished

The firm stated that the filing follows “the difficult but necessary decision by Celsius last month to pause withdrawals, swaps, and transfers on its platform to stabilise its business and protect its customers”. 

“Without a pause, the acceleration of withdrawals would have allowed certain customers—those who were first to act—to be paid in full while leaving others behind to wait for Celsius to harvest value from illiquid or longer-term asset deployment activities before they receive a recovery”.

Celsius hiring new directors

Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky added that he believes this was the right decision for the clients and the company itself. 

“We have a strong and experienced team in place to lead Celsius through this process. I am confident that when we look back at the history of Celsius, we will see this as a defining moment, where acting with resolve and confidence served the community and strengthened the future of the company,” he concluded.

Last week, the firm replaced its legal advisers Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP with newly appointed Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The company still hasn’t filed for bankruptcy and hopes that pairing up with Kirkland & Ellis LLP could represent a shift in the overall strategy.

Analysts mostly agree the move was expected. The firm also hired new directors: David Barse, the Chief Executive Officer of XOUT Capital, and Alan Carr, founder and managing member of Drivetrain, LLC, a professional fiduciary services firm.

With more than 100,000 creditors and the largest unsecured claim of $81 million from Caymans Island-based Pharos Fund, the filing also mentions FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research, as a creditor with a $12 million unsecured loan.



Celsius filing for bankruptcy is imminent

The latest Celsius news is that just 28 days [after it halted withdrawals for its users](/news/article/celsius-crypto-freezes-withdrawals), the troubled crypto lender decided to hire a new law force to help its restructuring process.

According to [sources](https://www.wsj.com/articles/troubled-crypto-lender-celsius-hires-new-restructuring-lawyers-11657473712), the company replaced its lawyer advisers Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP with newly appointed Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The company still hasn’t filed for bankruptcy and hopes that pairing up with Kirkland & Ellis LLP could represent a shift in the overall strategy.

Celsius, which was managing almost $11.8 billion in assets for its 1.7 million users as of May, decided to pause all withdrawals last month, explaining that "extreme market conditions" led to this decision.

As sort of a buffer, Celsius proposed high-yield loans of up to 18% on deposits and reiterated its users "will continue to accrue rewards" during Celsius’s “half-time”.

"We are taking this necessary action for the benefit of our entire community in order to stabilise liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect as diligently in order to face all challenges," the company said.

Be it as it may, Celsius isn't the only crypto firm collaborating with Kirkland & Ellis. Voyager Digital, which recently filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, also went with the company to try to solve the issues of its clients' wanting to withdraw funds from the company.

Celsius, however, hasn't been in an enviable situation. An ex-crypto money manager has sued the company on charges that Celsius used client funds to cover its deficits in the lending business. According to Arkham Intelligence, that manager is said to have cost Celsius $61.2 million in liquidations.

The company has allegedly also approached Alvarez & Marsal for restructuring options and, in late June, it fired John Stephen Dubel, founder of restructuring services provider Dubel & Associates, after only eight days of service.

In last week's Celsius news it was confirmed that the company had managed to repay its debt to Maker, giving back 41.2 million in DAI that unlocked 21,962 in wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), worth around $440 million.

Blockchain intelligence firm Nansen revealed that Celsius now has a total of $213 million in outstanding debt; 63% of this falls to Aave and 35% to Compound.


Celsius News: Troubled Firm Hires New Lawyers

Celsius Network, which froze assets last month, used customer funds to manipulate the price of its own token, a former employee alleges. The company's money manager [has launched a lawsuit.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-07/embattled-crypto-lender-celsius-accused-of-fraud-by-ex-employee)

Celsius Network has accumulated more than $20 billion by offering 18% interest on cryptocurrency deposits. Alex Mashinsky, the company's founder, said high rates were sustainable.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday in New York state court by KeyFi Inc., created by former Geld Managing Director Jason Stone. It alleges that Celsius struggled to cover dividends and experienced "substantial exchange rate losses" owing to fluctuating coin values.

Stone labels Celsius a Ponzi scheme in his case and alleges he was scammed out of millions in wages. Celsius's spokeswoman didn't immediately comment.

KeyFi attorney Kyle Roche declined to comment.

## Celsius Crypto Crash Rocks Market Already Shaken by Terra

The allegations come amid a Bitcoin credit shortage. Three Arrows Capital was liquidated last month. Voyager Digital Ltd filed for bankruptcy on July 6, and Babel Finance and Vauld have ceased payouts. Since June 12, Celsius Network users can't access funds.

The corporation considered debt restructuring on June 30. More than a million people have saved using Celsius. The appeal was obvious: the interest was 10 to 100 times higher than traditional savings accounts.

Celsius allegedly invested client assets in dangerous trading tactics without sufficient oversight. Celsius began transferring millions to Stone's startup KeyFi in August 2020.

## Crypto Lending? Why Did Investors Lose?

Stone obtained the private cryptographic keys to the funds, so he might have eloped with them, the complaint says. Stone invested through DeFi. It's a group of apps that lets users borrow, lend, and trade without intermediaries. Many apps paid users in cryptocurrencies at the time.

The lawsuit claims KeyFi earned Celsius $800 million through DeFi methods. Stone believes Celsius owes him 20%, but says he hasn't been paid. Stone also claimed that Celsius welcomed Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits, but rewarded strategy with other currencies. If Bitcoin and Ethereum rose faster than the others, Celsius could have more debt even if the company was profitable.

Celsius tracked users' U.S. dollar deposits, whether they owed Bitcoin or other tokens. Stone said this blunder caused a $100-$200 million hole in the balance sheet. Celsius raised $50 million in 2018 by selling a proprietary token, CEL, and its leaders retained substantial stakes. Stone alleges Celsius utilised $90 million in Bitcoin deposits in 2020 to "inflate" CEL. Maschinsky "enriched" himself and let Celsius borrow against CEL, the lawsuit says.

Stone adds that Celsius borrowed one billion Tether to patch its balance sheet. He claims he broke his connection with Celsius in March 2021.

Former Celsius employees told Bloomberg Businessweek in January that Stone used an anonymous Twitter account named 0xb1.

The Creative Artists Agency agreed to represent this account's digital art in licensing arrangements in October. 0xb1 paid $1 million for its profile image, "demon mutant monkey". Stone claims Celsius authorised him to acquire NFTs as a trading profit advance. He believes Mashinsky transferred some to his wife's wallet after leaving.

For more developments on crypto news go to [Latest Moni](/news).




Ex-employee Accuses Celsius Network of Fraud

According to reports, Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest financial organisations, has begun exploring the idea of purchasing assets from the crypto lending company Celsius Network, a company with deleveraging complications contributing to the crypto bubble chart as seen in the market of late. They are reportedly working on a $2 billion acquisition deal. 


## Goldman Sachs's involvement in the Celsius acquisition


Goldman Sachs has begun an industry-wide interest aggregation by identifying interested investors and obtaining significant commitments from them. 

According to a Goldman Sachs survey, insurers are exploring the idea of cryptocurrencies. According to the study, 6% of the three hundred and twenty-eight chief investment officers and chief financial officers had invested in or considered investing in cryptocurrency.

According to sources, [Goldman Sachs](https://watcher.guru/news/goldman-sachs-is-raising-2-billion-to-buy-celsius-network-assets) had targeted investors in Web3 crypto funds that specialise in distressed assets and traditional financial institutions. Majority of Celsius assets would most likely be cryptocurrency managed by participating investors. 

However, the CEO of a cryptocurrency trading platform remarked that unless Goldman Sachs explicitly states that they are purchasing Celsius, we should take the claims with a pinch of salt. It could simply be a PR stunt. 

Before its problems, Celsius was one of the top crypto lenders, with roughly $12 billion in assets under administration and 1.7 million members.


## Celsius CEO on the run after contributing to the crypto bubble chart 


A well-known cryptocurrency investor and analyst recently tweeted that Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky was on the run and attempted to flee the USA this week via Morristown Airport before being detained by police. Currently, it is unknown whether he was banned or arrested. 

Celsius CEO Mashinsky was going to leave for Israel; while claiming that the monies were secure, [Celsius Network halted consumer withdrawals](/news/article/celsius-crypto-freezes-withdrawals). It was a significant contributor to the negative sentiment and herding behavior of mass selling resulting in the  second of the two crypto bubbles we have seen. Mashinsky has remained silent since then, and there is no indication of when the customer monies will be returned.


As of 8:56 a.m. (BST), the Celsius crypto bubble chart price is $0.79, a change of -20.60 per cent in the previous 24 hours. The current price movement in Celsius has resulted in a market capitalisation of USD 547,793,645.88. Celsius has changed by -82.59 per cent so far this year. Bitcoin plummeted 14% on Monday after a prominent cryptocurrency lending firm in the United States, Celsius Network, halted withdrawals. 

The Celsius crypto bubble chart price move spurred a sell-off in cryptocurrencies, with their value falling below $1 trillion for the first time since January 2020, raising concerns that the collapse may spread to other assets or firms.

For more crypto business news, visit us at [Moni Talks](/news/category/crypto-business-news).


How Celsius blew up the crypto bubble chart

Celsius Network Ltd, one of the major crypto lenders and main players in the world of decentralised finance, confirmed late Sunday that it was [halting withdrawals, swaps, and transfers](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/celsius-price-crash-crypto-market-outlook-bitcoin-ethereum-terra-luna-2022-6#:~:text=Crypto%20lender%20Celsius%20has%20frozen%20all%20withdrawals%2C%20swaps,month%20after%20Terra%27s%20luna%20cryptocurrency%20crashed%20to%20zero.) after weeks of speculation about its ability to make good on the increasingly large returns it offered on certain of its products, including yields as high as 17%.

Crypto loan solutions have grown in popularity, with numerous firms launching offerings in the past year. Celsius raised $750 million in the capital last year from investors including Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, Canada's second-largest pension fund. Celsius was priced at $3.25 billion at the time. Celsius has $11.8 billion in assets as of May 17, a drop of more than half from October.

The decision to stop withdrawals effectively halted a platform with registered entities all over the world and billions of dollars in digital coins under management, ramping up a selloff in the broader market that was already underway due to concerns about the possibilities of tightening monetary policy ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting this week.

While Celsius crypto is a centralised platform with operations and staff that distinguishes it from DeFi, its deep involvement in the space, including investment in Terra and various risky strategies devised to earn high yields that it can then pass on to its users, has raised concerns about its viability.

Celsius crypto is a key player in the market for digital yield products, letting users lend out their tokens as collateral for other crypto initiatives. Traders were able to earn yearly rates of up to 17% in exchange for lending their tokens.

Celsius's crypto withdrawal ban early Monday was a U-turn after the company had spent many days denying claims that consumers couldn't make withdrawals. At the weekend, CEO Alex Mashinsky challenged sceptics to find "even one individual who has an issue withdrawing. Celsius crypto stated that the redemption freeze was implemented for the benefit of our entire community to control liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and safeguard assets.

The Celsius crypto move spurred a collapse across cryptocurrencies, with their value falling below $1 trillion on Monday for the first time since January 2021, raising concerns that the meltdown might spread to other assets or firms.

## Bitcoin Crashes

Following Celsius's crypto statement, [bitcoin fell to an 18-month low of $22,725](/news/article/bitcoin-price-crash-celsius) before modestly rebounding to about $23,265. The second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation Ethereum fell as much as 18% to $1,176, its lowest since January 2021. Companies with a stake in cryptocurrencies have previously warned that drops in token values might have repercussions, such as triggering margin calls.

Markets continued to fall on Monday following the release of U.S. inflation figures on Friday, which revealed the highest price increase since 1981, prompting investors to bolster their bets on Federal Reserve rate hikes. According to research, Celsius’s crypto token has dropped 97 per cent in the last year, from $7 to about 20 cents.


Latest Moni

Celsius Crypto News

Read the latest Celsius crypto news at Moni Talks.

Core Scientific Shuts Celsius Mining Rigs

Celsius Bankruptcy: Judge Orders Return of $50m

Celsius data breach reveals exec’s withdrawing $17m

Bitcoin price crash amid ‘extreme market conditions’

Celsius accuses KeyFi of stealing crypto

Celsius filing for bankruptcy is imminent

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