Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius Transfers $75M of Ether to Staking Service Figment

Beleaguered cryptocurrency lender Celsius Community staked some $75 million of ether (ETH) final week by way of Figment, an institutional-grade staking service, blockchain information reveals.

In line with information by crypto intelligence agency Arkham Intelligence, Celsius transferred some 40,928 ETH to a crypto pockets unfold by fourteen transactions between Could 10 and Could 12. The account is owned by Figment, who deposited the funds into staking contracts, in accordance with Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan.

The switch represents one of many largest actions of funds for the crypto lender because it filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety in July.

Celsius was one of many crypto companies that grew to become bancrupt after the sudden implosion of blockchain mission Terra and the following meltdown of crypto markets a yr in the past, forcing the corporate to freeze person withdrawals. As a part of the restructuring course of, the chapter court docket is holding an public sale to promote the agency and its property to buyers together with digital asset funding agency NovaWulf and personal fairness large Apollo World Administration.

Depositing to a staking service permits Celsius to earn rewards on its digital asset holdings throughout the restructuring efforts. Figment gives a median of 5.6% annualized staking reward, in accordance with its web site.

Celsius transfer comes as a shock as a result of it additionally operates one of many largest ETH staking swimming pools with some $290 million of property underneath administration.

“The attention-grabbing half is that they determined to stake with Figment as a substitute of their very own staking pool,” Tom Wan, analyst at digital asset funding product agency 21Shares, mentioned in a observe.

The final deposit into the lender’s personal staking pool occurred in April final yr, in accordance with Arkham blockchain information, properly earlier than the withdrawal freeze and chapter submitting. Celsius additionally holds some $750 million value of Lido Finance’s liquid staking by-product token stETH, incomes rewards.

Replace (12:33 UTC, Could 15, 2023): Provides further element.