Celsius Network, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency companies, has filed for bankruptcy in the United States. The platform, based in New Jersey, thus joins the long list of companies in the sector in trouble due to the tightening of monetary policy and the so-called 'crypto-winter', an expression coined to refer to the long bearish periods and high volatility of cryptocurrencies. like bitcoin, whose price has returned to below 20,000 dollars this Thursday.
Celsius Network has assets and debts that range from a wide range of 1,000 to 10,000 million dollars. However, the firm only has 167 million liquidity available to meet the costs of the restructuring with which it seeks to stabilize its business and be able to get out of bankruptcy. The decision to seek the protection of chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Law comes after the platform suspended all transactions between clients in mid-June and vetoed the withdrawal of capital due to "extreme conditions" of the market.
The company has more than 100,000 creditors, among which Alameda Research stands out, a company co-founded by the well-known billionaire in the sector Sam Bankman-Fried. The platform came to accumulate assets worth 20,000 million dollars by offering interest rates of up to 18% to its depositors.
Since bitcoin reached its all-time high of $69,000 last November, the price of the cryptocurrency has not stopped plummeting, to the point of losing around 71% of its value. The main reasons for this change in trend, according to analysts, are the tightening of monetary policies by central banks, which has caused many investors to flee, as well as the loss of confidence in cryptocurrencies, especially after important industry platforms have adopted drastic measures, such as the suspension of bitcoin withdrawals.
Celsius has followed in the footsteps of other companies in the sector, such as Voyager Digital, which a few days ago voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy law in order to undertake a restructuring. Other major exchanges, such as Binance, have temporarily suspended bitcoin withdrawals, further compounding the cryptocurrency's slump.
In Spain, last week the 2gether platform announced the closure of private accounts "due to lack of resources." According to estimates by the Association of Financial Users (Asufin), the closure affected 100,000 users, who had difficulty redeeming the money deposited on the platform. However, the Spanish company announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement with the also Spanish Bit2Me, so that 2gether customers who switch to this other platform will be allowed to continue buying and selling cryptocurrencies "without generating any expense or annoyance". Likewise, Bit2Me announced that it would reimburse the cost of the 20 euro commission that 2gether charged its users last Sunday if they continue to operate through its platform.
