Celsius distributes $2B of crypto to 172K creditors

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius has announced that most eligible creditors have now collected their liquid cryptocurrency distributions from its two distribution agents, payments giant PayPal, and cryptocurrency 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 successfully emerged from bankruptcy, which was filed in July 2022 .

According to Kirkland Ellis, crypto distributions to holders in the U.S. 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 claimed from the two distribution agents, 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, it explained that account holders who claimed to opt out of the class claim settlement will not receive any distribution of liquid crypto "until such claim is 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.

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 Mashinsky’s cases.

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