Bankrupt Celsius Transfers $24M Worth of Altcoins to FalconX, OKX: What You Need to Know

In the early morning of June 17, Celsius Network, a crypto lending platform that is facing bankruptcy, transferred about $24 million worth of various altcoins to two wallets belonging to OKX and FalconX.

According to Arkham Intelligence, most of the funds went to FalconX, a crypto brokerage service. The firm received Chainlink (LINK) worth $8.46 million, Synthetix (SNX) worth $7.71 million, and BNB worth $3.06 million.

Celsius Network also sent FalconX other tokens, such as 1INCH worth $2.1 million, ZRX worth $1.87 million, and FTT worth $718,000.

According to blockchain data, the insolvent lender has moved about $235,000 worth of BONE, a token from ShibaSwap, to the OKX exchange. This was confirmed by Lookonchain, a blockchain analysis firm, which also reported that FalconX was sending the altcoins to Binance.

These transactions suggest that the lender is trying to sell digital assets for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), as it was recently allowed by the court.

Celsius Still Holds Over $180M Worth of Altcoins Despite Legal Situation

According to Dune analytics, Celsius still has about $183 million worth of various altcoins in its portfolio, including its own CEL token, Polygon’s MATIC, Avalanche’s AVAX token, stablecoins, and more. The CEL token makes up more than half of Celsius’s altcoin holding, with a value of $106.28 million at the time of writing. 

However, Celsius may face challenges in selling some of its altcoins due to low liquidity. Kaiko, a blockchain analytics firm, warned on June 10 that CEL has very little trading volume and that selling other assets could affect the crypto market negatively. The graph above shows that Celsius’s BTC and ETH holdings are worth more than $350 million, which is the majority of its total assets.

As part of its bankruptcy process, Celsius agreed to pay a $4.7 billion penalty to the FTC on July 13 for its deceptive practices. Celsius co-founder Alex Mashinsky is also facing legal troubles from U.S. regulators, who accused him of breaking federal securities law. 

Mashinsky was arrested on July 13 and released on a $40 million bond. He is also being sued by the DOJ, CFTC, and FTC for various violations.