Celsius Judge Will Rule on Whether Lender Owns Customer Crypto

  • Coin lender wants to sell $18 million of user-deposited crypto
  • Ruling could echo through other crypto lender bankruptcies
Alex Mashinsky, founder and chief executive officer of Celsius Network.Photographer: Dania Maxwell/Bloomberg
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A federal judge will soon decide whether depositors at Celsius Network LLC gave up ownership of their cryptocurrencies in exchange for interest payments, a key legal issue that could echoBloomberg Terminal through other crypto bankruptcies.

Celsius has asked for US Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn’s permission to sell $18 million of crypto on its balance sheet to keep paying its bills while it works on a way to repay creditors. But the coins in question came from Celsius users, who put the assets into interest-bearing accounts prior to the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.