Celsius transfers $125M of ETH to exchanges as FTX and Alameda dump

Embattled crypto lender Celsius has shifted more than $125 million worth of its Ether (ETH) to crypto exchanges over the past week amid plans to begin repaying creditors. 

Between Jan. 8 and Jan. 12, Celsius transferred $95.5 million to Coinbase, while $29.7 million was transferred to FalconX, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

Looks like Celsius took the opportunity to unload >$125M of ETH over ETF Week.

In the past week, they’ve deposited $95.5M to Coinbase and sent $29.73M to FalconX.

They still have $1.4 billion (540K ETH) remaining.https://t.co/jp1PJbN46r pic.twitter.com/xgfX6yU5Ye

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) January 13, 2024

However, Celsius still holds more than 550,000 ETH on its books, worth a staggering $1.36 billion at the time of publication.

On Jan. 5, Celsius moved to unstake a whopping 206,300 ETH — worth $407 million at the time — with the lender claiming that newly-liberated Ether would be used to pay for costs incurred through its restructuring process and in preparation to repay creditors.

Related: Celsius files intent to claw back certain pre-bankruptcy withdrawals

Celsius has stated it would distribute Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH to creditors in its recovery plan though it has yet to specify a specific date that creditors would begin receiving funds.

Celsius creditors have been waiting more than 18 months to receive funds stuck on the platform since the firm first declared bankruptcy in July 2022.

FTX and Alameda transfer $28M to exchanges

Celsius wasn’t the only embattled firm moving crypto holdings to exchanges in recent weeks.

On Jan. 14, bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its defunct trading arm Alameda Research make its own moves by transferring $28 million worth of crypto to exchanges, according to data from blockchain analytics platform SpotOnChain.

Institutions #FTX and #Celsius moved $35.1M worth of $WBTC and $ETH to CEX as the $BTC and $ETH prices surged sharply in 24H.

1. #FTX and #Alameda Research moved $11.72M, including:- 200 $WBTC ($9.39M) to #Binance at $46,952- 1,000 $ETH ($2.33M) to #Coinbase at $2,330

2.… https://t.co/oggGMhcUC8 pic.twitter.com/o79tjOQWLk

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) January 9, 2024

The transfers included $18.7 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin, $8 million worth of Ether, and $1 million worth of Pendle (PENDLE) to Coinbase and Binance.

After FTX and Alameda Research declared bankruptcy in November last year, FTX has sought to raise funds for creditor repayment. FTX administrators have successfully reclaimed approximately $7 billion in assets, with a substantial $3.4 billion in cryptocurrency.

The market has warmed to FTX creditor claims, with some going for as high as $0.50 on the dollar in October last year, suggesting that creditors stand a reasonable chance of being made whole. While there is no exact date for when FTX customers can expect to be reimbursed, the current plan estimate that repyaments should begin sometime this year. 

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