The institutional investment company EquitiesFirst is the anonymous debtor stated in the bankruptcy filing by crypto lender Celsius with the former owing $439M to Celsius.
As per a Financial Times report, the $439M that EquitiesFirst still owes is composed of $361M in cash and 3,765 Bitcoin.
According to a court statement filed yesterday by Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, the company first borrowed money through EquitiesFirst in 2019 in exchange for cryptocurrency as security.
EquitiesFirst is referred to in the document as a “private lending platform”. When the company attempted to pay back its loans to get its collateral back, EquitiesFirst notified it that it could not do so right now.
As a result of the loan being arranged with excessive collateral, Celsius went from owing EquitiesFirst to becoming its creditor. EquitiesFirst made $5M in monthly installments, reducing the debt from its original amount of $509M to $439M.
Also Read: Celsius Network Reveals $1.2B Hole in Balance Sheet
EquitiesFirst responded to this report via its official Twitter account noting that it returned over $343,600,000 to Celsius Network since September last year based on contractual agreements.
“Both parties are in ongoing negotiations working toward mutually beneficial goals,” EquitiesFirst tweeted, by adding that their client relationships are stronger than ever.
Last month, Celsius had to pause withdrawals and transfers due to market conditions which instigated a chain of reactions taking down multiple crypto firms. And just two days back, Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and currently it has $5.5B in liabilities and only $4.3B in assets.
