Key points to remember
- Celsius-linked accounts transferred 40,928 ETH in staking contracts on the Figment platform from May 10 to May 12.
- These 41,000 ETH staked are in addition to the $300,000 in ETH currently staked by Celsius.
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Celsius Network, a defunct crypto lending platform, transferred 40,928 ETH, or $70 million, to the Figment staking service last week, according to the data of cryptographic intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence.
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Over the past week, Celsius Network-tagged wallets have come back online, depositing millions of dollars in ETH into ETH2 staking contracts with Figment.
In total, Celsius sent 30.8K ETH to deposit, worth $56.98M! pic.twitter.com/J7Ja44C65k
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) May 15, 2023
The transfer was split across 14 trades between May 10 and May 12 and placed in staking contracts held by Figment, according to Ethercan. It is considered the biggest move of funds for Celsius since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022.
Tom Wan, Research Analyst for 21co – the parent company of 21shares – further confirmed:
.@CelsiusNetwork wagered 40.9k $ETH via @Figment_io from May 10 to May 12
Congratulations to @etheraltog for the great find🫡 pic.twitter.com/stb3kdqEut
—Tom Wan (@tomwanhh) May 15, 2023
Pale noted that this was Celsius’ first move to Figment after a year, stating that Celsius could have used its own staking pool for the 40,000 Ether.
Staking is a process of locking crypto, like Ether, for a set amount of time in order to earn rewards for validating transactions and creating blocks on the network.
While Figment offers approximately 5.6% annualized staking rewards, according to its website, Celsius has a staked Ether wallet and even took of some of its funds in April 2023. Celsius has nearly $300,000 in ETH staked at the time of writing, according in Dune Analytic.
Celsius legal battles
The struggling crypto lender filed for bankruptcy on July 14, 2022 and was explore restructuring plans and the recovery amid reports that Celsius operated under a Ponzi scheme. Meanwhile, former CEO Alex Mashinsky has been in legal hot water.
In January 2023, Mashinsky was prosecuted by the New York Attorney General Letitia James – the judge known for pursue Tether and Bitfinex — to defraud investors. In February 2023, Mashinsky was again sued by creditorswho claimed that executives cashed in before the platform collapsed.
While it’s too early to tell what Celsius plans to do with ETH results staked both on and off Figment, the Southern District of New York approved a restructuring plan that allows approximately 85% of customers to recover 72.5% of their crypto from Celsius.