Celsius distributes $2B of crypto to 172K creditors

According to the court filing, around 20,500 Bitcoins and 301,000 Ether tokens have been distributed among eligible creditors, without any security or operational issues.

Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius has announced that most eligible creditors have now collected their liquid crypto distributions from its two distribution agents, payments giant PayPal, and crypto exchange Coinbase.

In a recent court filing, Kirkland & Ellis, the legal team representing Celsius, provided an update on the creditor distributions as outlined in the restructuring plan. This follows Celsius' announcement last week that it exited from bankruptcy, which was filed in July 2022.

According to Kirkland & Ellis, crypto distributions to holders in the United States are facilitated through PayPal, while overseas holders are managed by Coinbase as the distribution agent.

The lawyers declared that $2 billion worth of crypto has been transferred to creditors, including 20,255.66 Bitcoin (BTC) and 301,338.77 Ethereum (ETH).

“As of the date hereof, a significant number of Holders have successfully collected their Liquid Cryptocurrency from PayPal/Venmo and Coinbase: Nearly 75% of the BTC/ETH set to be distributed by PayPal/Venmo and through Coinbase has already been collected.”

However, the filing explained that account holders who did not agree to the restructuring plan will not receive any crypto distribution, until their individual claims are resolved.

Additionally, it mentioned that certain account holders might face challenges in receiving their distribution if Coinbase or PayPal flag any anti-money laundering (AML) or compliance issues.

“Distribution Agents have discretion to refuse making distributions to anyone they believe does not fulfill their compliance and other requirements.”

Post-effective date Celsius debtors' first update on distributions. Source: Stretto

There has been speculation within the crypto industry about how the actions outlined in the restructuring plan might affect the broader crypto market.

On Jan. 5, Cointelegraph reported that Celsius started recalling and rebalancing its crypto assets to ensure a timely distributions to creditors.

However, blockchain analytics firm Nansen highlighted at the time, that almost a third of the ETH in the pending withdrawal queue currently belongs to Celsius.

Related: Celsius valuation advisor approves value of debtors assets and liabilities

In October 2023, Celsius asked the court to approve of its restructuring plan which at the time, was hoping to have creditors repaid before the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of the now-defunct crypto lender, is scheduled to stand trial in September 2024 regarding the collapse.

However, his legal team has recently faced scrutiny for a potential conflict of interest, as they also represent Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

On Feb. 6, U.S. Prosecutors raised concerns about lawyers Marc Mukasey and Torrey Young, who have both filed notice of appearances in the criminal cases against the former crypto CEOs.

The U.S. government called for a Curcio hearing, in which the judges may ask questions about a potential conflict of interest and why both lawyers were involved in Bankman-Fried and Mashinskys cases.

Magazine: GBTC drops BTC stake by 21%, Celsius exits bankruptcy, and more: Hodlers Digest, Jan. 28 – Feb. 3