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, which was 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 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, although 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 $28 million to exchanges

Celsius wasn’t the only beleaguered firm moving crypto holdings to exchanges recently.

On Jan. 14, bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its defunct trading arm Alameda Research made their own moves by transferring $28 million in crypto to exchanges, according to data from blockchain analytics platform Spot On Chain.

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 of Ether and $1 million of Pendle (PENDLE) to Coinbase and Binance.

After FTX and Alameda Research declared bankruptcy in November 2022, 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 2023, suggesting 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 estimates that repayments should begin sometime in 2024.

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