Crypto lender Celsius hires lawyers to help it restructure its finances, after it froze withdrawals of customer deposits: report

alex mashinsky celsius — Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky.
Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images

Crypto lender Celsius has brought in lawyers to help it tackle its financial problems, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Celsius froze all withdrawals from customer accounts this week, citing "extreme market conditions."
Its customers have pulled more than $2.5 billion in assets this year as crypto prices slid, the FT reported.

Leading crypto lender Celsius Network has brought in lawyers to help it tackle a growing pile of financial problems, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Celsius froze all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts on Monday, citing market volatility and extreme market conditions, after crypto markets tanked at the weekend.

The company has now hired law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to advise it as it looks into restructuring its finances and other strategic alternatives, the WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Celsius takes customer deposits of cryptocurrencies and then lends the digital assets out to other companies, such as hedge funds, and decentralized finance projects.

It offers high returns on deposits — up to 18% in annual percentage yield — and managed $11.8 billion in assets in May, according to its website. In December, it claimed to manage $24 billion in crypto, per the Financial Times.

But customers have withdrawn more than $2.5 billion in assets from the platform this year as cryptocurrency prices slid, the FT reported. Celsius did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

The company took the unforeseen step of freezing account activity after bitcoin plummeted almost 19% over the past weekend, in a broader crypto rout driven by investor worries about interest rates.

"We are taking this necessary action for the benefit of our entire community in order to stabilize liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets," Celsius said in a blog post at the time.

The halt in redemptions was seen as a warning sign, and the move rattled the crypto market, worried Celsius' troubles might spread to other digital assets.

"Many think it is mainly due to fear surrounding the insolvency risk of one of the biggest lending platforms, Celsius," GlobalBlock strategist Marcus Sotiriou said after the crypto sell-off intensified Monday.

Customers of the five-year-old company told Insider they have no idea what will happen to their money, with one saying they have $105,000 worth of solana trapped on the Celsius platform. In DeFi, customers don't have the same protections as with traditional accounts.

Regulators have previously questioned Celsius over its high-yield products, which some have likened to a Ponzi scheme. The states of New Jersey, Texas, and Alabama all imposed a cease and desist order on the company last year, per Bloomberg.

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