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Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network has filed a complaint against lending firm EquitiesFirst Holdings in a bid to recoup assets.<\/p>\n
According to a sealed adversary complaint<\/a> filed on Sept. 6, Celsius is seeking injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment associated with the “recovery of money\/property” \u2014 according to the title of the docket. <\/p>\n The filing named both EquitiesFirst and its CEO Alexander Christy as defendants. Additionally, Celsius filed<\/a> a summons on the same day, requiring that the private lender provide a motion or answer within 35 days. <\/p>\n EquitiesFirst Holdings is an Indianapolis-based private lending company that reportedly<\/a> owed Celsius Network $439 million as of July 2022. <\/p>\n Celsius first began taking collateralized loans from EquitiesFirst in 2019 to \u201csupport its operations\u201d owing to what Alex Mashinsky described in a subsequent bankruptcy filing<\/a> as a \u201clack of institutional lending available to cryptocurrency companies,\u201d at the time. <\/p>\n However, in July 2021, Celsius Network sought to retrieve the collateral it had pledged to EquitiesFirst but was informed that the lender could not return the amount Celsius had provided. <\/p>\n As of July 2021, Celsius was owed a total of $509 million by EquitiesFirst. The increase from $439 million to $509 million was due to the loans being over-collateralized. Since September 2021, the debt has been slowly repaid at a rate of $5 million per month.<\/p>\n As of July 2022, EquitiesFirst owed Celsius $439 million, with the debt being comprised of $361 million in cash and 3,765 Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>).<\/p>\n Related: <\/em><\/strong>Alex Mashinsky’s assets frozen by US court as part of criminal case<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Celsius Network was among the major casualties of the 2022 bear market, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection<\/a> on July 14, 2022. <\/p>\n Celsius\u2019 former CEO Alex Mashinky was arrested on July 13 this year<\/a>, with authorities accusing him of misleading Celsius users and defrauding investors out of billions of dollars. <\/p>\n Notably,\u00a0The Federal Trade Commission issued Celsius with $4.7 billion in fines<\/a> for allegedly \u201cduping\u201d users, but suspended the judgement in order for the platform to use the assets as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.<\/p>\n