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Crypto-landing platform Celsius Network owes private financial company EquitiesFirst $ 439 million, the Financial Times reports, citing informed sources.
On Thursday, Celsius and some of its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy in a New York court. According to the documents, as of July 13, the platform’s liabilities exceed the assets on the balance sheet by almost $ 1.2 billion.
The petition also mentions a “private lending platform” that Celsius used to finance its operations from September 2019 to February 2021. The collateral for the loans was cryptocurrency.
In July 2021, Celsius tried to repay one of its loans and repay the collateral, but “the lender was unable to return the assets to the company in a timely manner,” the documents say. As a result, unsecured debt in the amount of $ 509 million “hung” on the platform.
Since September 2021, the platform has been gradually reducing the amount of debt. Current payments exceed $5 million per month. At the time of application, Celsius’s debt was $ 439 million – $ 361 million in fiat currency and 3765 BTC.
The interlocutors of the FT said that the “private credit platform” is the company EquitiesFirst from Indianapolis. The latter was founded in 2002 by Alexander Christie and specializes in issuing loans secured by shares of companies.
“We are in constant talks with our client, both parties have agreed to extend our commitments,” an EquitiesFirst spokesperson told reporters.
In an April interview with Hubbis, Johnny Heng, managing director of EquitiesFirst in Singapore, noted that in 2016, the company also began issuing loans secured by cryptocurrency.
Recall that in July 2022, DeFi contractor Celsius KeyFi Inc. filed a lawsuit against the landing platform, accusing it of refusing to fulfill contractual obligations.
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