In the past 30 days, beleaguered cryptocurrency lender Celsius has offloaded a substantial $250 million in digital assets, with Ethereum (ETH) accounting for a staggering $243 million, or 97% of the total, according to on-chain data revealed by crypto investigator Apes_Prologue.
Apes_Prologue also noted that within the last 24 hours, the defunct lending platform transferred over 10,000 units of ETH, equivalent to approximately $24 million, to leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and the cryptocurrency brokerage platform FalconX.
Additionally, Celsius reportedly liquidated over $3 million in stablecoins, $1.3 million in Chainlink’s LINK, and $1.4 million in Pax Gold. Other assets included around $150,000 each of Polygon’s MATIC and Avalanche’s AVAX tokens.
The motivation behind Celsius’s significant selling activity appears to be linked to its restructuring efforts following bankruptcy. Jef Breed, founder of venture capital firm Breed VC, offered insights into the situation. He suggested that Celsius might be divesting its ETH holdings to fund MiningCo, a Bitcoin mining venture slated to be owned by the creditors of the collapsed firm.
Breed explained that the initial leading bidder in Celsius’s bankruptcy auction, Fahreint (NewCo), encountered regulatory hurdles in realizing its plans for Bitcoin mining and Ethereum staking services. Consequently, Celsius redirected its focus toward a mining venture overseen by MiningCo, prompting the liquidation of a portion of its ETH holdings to secure $250 million in fiat capital—a departure from the initial plan, which necessitated $450 million in liquid cryptocurrency for Fahreint’s proposed strategy.
Market observers speculate that Celsius’s sell-off might have contributed to Ethereum’s recent lackluster performance compared to other large-cap cryptocurrencies. Data from CryptoSlate indicates that over the past 30 days, ETH has faced challenges against the likes of Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche, with their values experiencing rapid increases. For context, SOL‘s price surged by approximately 20% in the last seven days, while ETH recorded a modest 2% increase during the same period.
Despite the recent selling pressure, analysts remain cautiously optimistic, suggesting that the worst may be over, and Ethereum could experience a resurgence in the coming months, especially with the potential introduction of a spot ETH ETF. As of the latest update, ETH is trading at $2230.
