Celsius shareholder proposed platform recovery plan

The co-founder of BnkToTheFuture sees the need for “using financial innovation” that was used to bail out the Bitfinex exchange in 2016

20.06.2022 - 06:40

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2 min

What’s new? On June 18, BnkToTheFuture co-founder Simon Dixon unveiled a plan to restore Celsius, a DeFi lending platform. He suggested applying the “financial innovation” used in 2016 to bail cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex from liquidation. Dixon said he could not disclose details of the proposal until the platform’s board accepted it.

Information on the BnkToTheFuture website

What did Dixon say? In his view, traditional finance cannot solve the Celsius problem in a timely manner. Dixon cited the situation with the Mt. Gox exchange as an example — in April 2013, it suspended trading to “restore the market,” before halting it completely in 2014 and filing for liquidation. Dixon noted that Mt. Gox’s problems remain unresolved to this day.

He believes that the Celsius problem can only be solved through financial innovation. In the case of Bitfinex, which applied a similar method, the situation was resolved in 9 months. Dixon noted that as a shareholder and lender to Celsius, he is keen to support the platform with a recovery plan.

BnkToTheFuture is a global online investment platform that allows investors to invest in financial technology companies, funds, and other new alternative financial products. The platform has a network of more than 85 000 qualified investors. In June 2020, Celsius floated on BnkToTheFuture and raised $20,46 million through 1039 investors.

Details of the Celsius situation. On June 13, the platform suspended withdrawals, exchanges, and transfers between accounts, citing “extreme market conditions.” On the same day, state securities regulators in Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington launched an investigation into Celsius. Crypto lender Nexo said it intended to buy the platform’s assets, primarily their collateralized loan portfolio. Celsius later hired experts from the financial conglomerate Citigroup to advise on finding new sources of financing, as well as lawyers from Akin Gump to conduct restructuring.

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