SINGAPORE : The business model that crypto firm Celsius Network had advertised and sold to its customers was not the business it actually operated, a court-ordered examiner report released on Tuesday showed.
The report added that Celsius's stablecoin deficit between May 28, 2021 and its bankruptcy filing amounted to a billion-dollar hole in its assets. Hoboken, New Jersey-based Celsius filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors last July in Manhattan after freezing customer withdrawals from its platform. It listed a deficit of $1.19 billion on its balance sheet.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn, who is overseeing the Chapter 11 case, appointed former prosecutor Shoba Pillay as an independent examiner in September. She was tasked with investigating accusations by Celsius customers that the company operated as a Ponzi scheme and also with reporting on its handling of cryptocurrency deposits.