Celsius Moves $510M Worth of Wrapped Bitcoin to FTX After Debt Payoff
Table of contents
Crypto Community Unsure of the Move
After repaying its remainder debt this morning, Celsius then withdrew the $440 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), a tokenized version of Bitcoin that can be used on the Ethereum network, that it had deposited as collateral.
A few hours later, the crypto lender reclaimed the collateral to a wallet on crypto exchange FTX. The company now has $531 million worth of WBTC sitting on the exchange.
In the meantime, the crypto community is fearing that a dump of the WBTC on the exchange could soon follow, pushing Bitcoin prices down. Others remain hopeful that the move may be in preparation for Celsius to swap their wrapped Bitcoin for BTC, which may be a good sign for depositors who've been hoping for Bitcoin withdrawals to eventually reopen on the Celsius platform.
With 1.7 million customers and an estimated $12 billion in assets under management last month, Celsius halted withdrawals on June 12. Last week, the company said in a statement that it was exploring options to "preserve and protect assets" in consultation with experts, which can include "pursuing strategic transactions" and "restructuring its liabilities."