Celsius Creditors Move to Subpoena Lending Firm Equities First for $439M Collateral Repayment

The money is collateral posted against a loan Celsius took from the company and which Equities First was unable to repay.

Sep 30, 2022 at 5:53 a.m. UTC

Updated Sep 30, 2022 at 6:37 p.m. UTC

Parikshit Mishra is the news editor for CoinDesk during the mid Asia and early European hours. He does not have any crypto holdings.

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Creditors of crypto lending firm Celsius have moved to subpoena Equities First, a lending firm which is embroiled in the Celsius bankruptcy.

The move comes after Celsius' former CEO, Alex Mashinsky, declared the company had borrowed money from Equities First, and when it attempted to repay the loans Equities First was unable to return the collateral. Mashinsky said Celsius is still owed $439 million from Equities First.

The creditors are seeking information regarding the loan agreements between Celsius and Equities First, any transfer of cash or crypto between Celsius and the lender, and also the reason behind Equities First's inability to pay back the $439 million collateral to Celsius.

Celsius was one of the crypto firms to collapse due to the market downturn earlier this year and has been struggling to pay back its creditors. The lending firm was looking at a number of ways to payback its debt, including IOU (“I Owe You”) tokens and selling off its stablecoin holdings.

On Thursday, Texas state agencies raised objections to Celsius' plan to sell off the stablecoin holdings. The potential stablecoin sale is scheduled for a hearing on Oct. 6 in New York.

It was also recently reported that FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried could bid on the bankrupt crypto bank’s assets.

At press time, Celsius's native token, CEL, was down nearly 0.5% at $1.45.

UPDATE (Sept. 30, 2022 06:15 UTC): Updates headline, adds additional details in the third paragraph and additional background.

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