Leaked bids suggest big-name bidders competing for Celsius assets
Tiffany Fong, a crypto blogger, dropped a bombshell on Jan. 26 when she released documents that she claimed to have obtained in late December – bidding details for Celsius Network’s crypto assets.
The documents revealed that as many as five firms had placed offers, among them some of the biggest names in the industry: Binance, Bank To The Future, Galaxy Digital, Cumberland DRW and NovaWulf.
Fong initially hesitated to make the bids public, but the recent commentary from a lawyer representing Celsius changed her mind.
In a Substack post, she explained the reasons for her decision. She said she refrained from sharing the bids publicly to avoid disrupting the procedures or negatively impacting customer recoveries.
However, the recent court hearing showed that Celsius Network hoped to reorganize into a publicly-traded company and potentially issue a new token. The bids were found ‘not compelling.’ Therefore, she decided to leak the bids, as fond creditors never got a chance to evaluate the bids, nor did most Celsius employees.
How did the bids play out?
According to Fong, Binance, Galaxy Digital, Cumberland, Bank To The Future, and Novawulf have all made bids for the assets of Celsius Network, with the highest bid so far-reaching, $1.8 billion.
Binance allegedly proposed $15 million, of which $12 million would go to the Celsius estate and $3 million would be distributed to migrated users with an additional $50 incentive in cash/stablecoin and trading credits.
Galaxy Digital proposed to acquire all illiquid and staked ethereum assets for approximately $67 million, while Cumberland’s offer of $1.8 billion consists of $333 million in stablecoin reserves, $583 million in liquid tokens of BTC and ETH at a 15% haircut, $854 million for illiquid tokens, and $11 million in alternative investments at 95% haircut.
Bank To The Future has proposed to return all liquid crypto assets and collateral to creditors pro rata, and Novawulf’s offer resembles Celsius Network’s newly-proposed restructuring plans.
The legitimacy of the leaks
A Twitter user reached out to Simon Dixon, CEO of Bank to the Future, to confirm the accuracy of the leaked documents containing bids for Celsius Network’s asset acquisition.
Dixon confirmed that the contents of the leaked bids relating to his firm were accurate.
This suggests that the other bids shared by Fong could be accurate as well. However, no official announcement has been made by any crypto firms involved.
