Crypto lending platform Celsius Networks LLC said on Sunday that it iwill pause all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts, “due to extreme market conditions.”
The New Jersey-based company said in a statement, “We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations,”
One of the largest crypto lending companies globally, at one point Celsius claimed more than $20 billion in assets. But it has also run into problems with regulators, and some users have recently accused Celsius of steep financial losses for encouraging them to hold its CEL digital tokens as collateral for loans. According to CoinGecko data, CEL plummeted 48% late Sunday with losses of more than 75% of its value over the past month, and 97% over the past year.
The wider cryptocurrency space has been slammed this year, with a total crypto market loss of over 40% for the past two months. Bitcoin BTCUSD, -6.99%, for instance, dropped to an 18-month low on Sunday and has lost 45% of its value year to date; it’s off more than 60% since its all-time high last November.
“We understand that this news is difficult,” Celsius said Sunday. “We are working with a singular focus: to protect and preserve assets to meet our obligations to customers. Our ultimate objective is stabilizing liquidity and restoring withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts as quickly as possible,” the blog post said.”
Its operations were continuing, said Celsius but that there was “a lot of work ahead as we consider various options.”
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