Celsius pays down 143 mn in DAI loans since July 1
With the recent repayments, the platform is keeping up hopes amid rumours of insolvency
Crypto staking and lending platform Celsius has reportedly repaid $142.8 million in Dai (DAI) stablecoins to the Maker (MKR) protocol in four separate transactions since July 1, indicating that the troubled crypto lending platform is attempting to avoid a total collapse amid credible rumours of insolvency.
Alex Mashinsky's Celsius dominated headlines since mid-June after the popular crypto lender halted withdrawals due to extreme market conditions. During the freeze, the firm unstaked wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) of approximately $247 million from Aave and transferred it to the FTX derivatives exchange. It also transferred $74.5 million worth of Ether (ETH).
A debt of $82 million still remains outstanding between Celsius and Maker. Currently, the firm has suffered losses of $667.2 million on its $1.8 billion lifetime investments. This is not the first time Celsius has paid off a substantial amount of its loan. Back in February, the company announced that it had repaid its $100 million Bitcoin loan.
Celsius' liquidation price on its Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) loan has dropped to $4,966.99 Bitcoin (BTC) as a result of the recent loan repayments. The liquidation price also reportedly dropped by nearly half since Celsius made a $64 million DAI payment on July 4, just hours after making a $50 million DAI payment.
Among the speculations about Celsius' demise was the hiring of restructuring lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld earlier in June to look for potential solutions to the firm's financial woes. Despite liquidity issues and signs of impending business failure, Celsius was reportedly still paying out rewards to its users. However, users were unable to withdraw their rewards due to liquidity issues faced by the company.
The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash