Celsius Network Files 'Adversary Complaint' Against EquitiesFirst to Recover Assets
The private lender owed Celsius $439 million of assets as of July 2022.
Sep 6, 2023 at 9:02 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/FJD5XFSDIRFJTPQTLLQ6EQ4PZY.jpg)
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Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network has filed Wednesday afternoon an "adversary complaint" against EquitiesFirst Holdings in an attempt to recoup assets, according to a bankruptcy court document.
EquitiesFirst is a private lending platform that owed Celsius some $439 million worth of cash and bitcoin (BTC) as of July 2022. Celsius first took collateralized loans from the lender in 2019, but failed to return collateral in 2021, CoinDesk reported earlier. Wednesday's filing named both the company and its CEO, Alexander Christy, as defendants.
The rest of the document was filed under seal.
"Complaint against Defendants Equities First Holdings, LLC, Alexander Christy (Adversary Complaint Filed Under Seal)," a docket entry on the bankruptcy page said. The description said the filing sought injunctive relief and a declaratory judgement, and was tied to the "recovery of money/property."
Celsius was one of the first crypto firms to implode when the market nosedived last year, applying for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022. Co-founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky was arrested earlier this year and now faces multiple charges, including securities fraud and manipulation of the company’s CEL token.
The creditors are currently voting on whether to sell assets to winning bidder consortium Fahrenheit, as part of the bankruptcy proceeding that could see them regain access to some of their assets stuck on the platform.
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Krisztian Sandor is a reporter on the U.S. markets team focusing on stablecoins and institutional investment. He holds BTC and ETH.