Just hours after repaying its debt to the decentralised lending protocol Maker and reclaiming $450 million in collateral in WBTC, Celsius deposited $500 million in wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), a bitcoin derivative product of the Ethereum blockchain, to crypto exchange FTX.
According to blockchain transaction data shared by blockchain data firm Nansen, a wallet linked to Celsius delivered 24,463 WBTC to the FTX in various steps.
Celsius dunking 24k $WBTC (half a billion dollars worth) onto FTX.
Nothing to see here. pic.twitter.com/phFcDZXZ7H
— Nansen Intern 🧭 (@nansen_intern) July 7, 2022
Earlier Thursday, Celsius reclaimed 21,963 wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) tokens after fully repaying its debt to Maker. Celsius already redeemed a 2,000 WBTC installment of the collateral on Tuesday.
According to Fundstrat analyst Walter Teng, Celsius’s “de-leveraging activity on-chain will add sell-side pressure to assets that have been used as collateral,” including WBTC, which has been the firm’s largest holding pledged against its decentralised finance (DeFi) loans.
The move suggests that Celsius might sell the assets for more liquid assets, even though market data on the exchange did not show any signs of this happening. At press time, WBTC was trading at $21,600, up 6% in the last 24 hours.
Celsius suspended withdrawals and all user transfers starting in June, citing “extreme market conditions” that raised concerns about the lender’s collapse. The firm also hired restructuring advisers, while regulators also started investigations into the crypto lender’s operation in several U.S. states.
Last week, the company announced in a statement that it was exploring options to “preserve and protect assets” in consultation with experts, including “pursuing strategic transactions” and “restructuring its liabilities,” as reported.