Celsius Hires New Restructuring Lawyers Amid Debt Repayments

Celsius repaid its debt to DAI stablecoin issuer Maker last week and is trying to make good on its debts to others

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Celsius has tapped a new law firm to help steer the firm’s restructuring as it stares down a lawsuit
  • The move comes as the lender is attempting to repay its debt to DeFi protocols Aave and Compound totaling $213 million

Troubled crypto lender Celsius has reportedly tapped a new law firm to advise its restructuring efforts as it continues to resolve its outstanding debts.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the ailing company has replaced its former lawyers at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP with new ones from Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is the same law firm representing Voyager — another troubled lender — helping it to navigate its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, filed last week.

Celsius, which had managed up to $11.8 billion in assets for around 1.7 million users as of May, halted withdrawals last month, citing “extreme market conditions” as the reason for its move.

A former crypto money manager has also sued Celsius over allegations the firm misappropriated user funds to cover its shortfalls in its lending business. That manager is said to have cost Celsius $61.2 million in liquidations, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

The lender has since made several attempts to honor its debt obligations to decentralized finance lending and borrowing protocols Aave and Compound in recent days, potentially in a bid to free up $950 million in locked collateral, CoinDesk reported. The move resembles its repayment to DAI stablecoin issuer and DeFi platform Maker last week.

Celsius repaid its final outstanding debt to Maker on Thursday, paying back 41.2 million in DAI that unlocked 21,962 in WBTC (wrapped bitcoin), worth approximately $440 million at the time.

According to a crypto wallet identified as Celsius’ by blockchain intelligence firm Nansen, Celsius has a total of $213 million outstanding debt to both platforms, down from $258 million on Friday. Out of $213 million, Celsius owes 63% to Aave and 35% to Compound, data from DeFi data dashboard Zapper shows.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

zerebro.png

Research

Here we tackle the new crypto product ideas we expect agents to enable, reason about the value capture potential of different AI agent platform plays, and survey the current landscape of leading AI agent platform pureplays available to crypto investors today.

article-image

The crypto custody firm’s goal was to “identify price points at which traders might consider the market to be overextended”

article-image

Building on Cosmos in 2022 was a nightmare, so this team pivoted to tackle developer experience

article-image

Tribe Capital’s Evan Park and Blockworks Research’s Ryan Connor explain the issues with Ethereum and outline potential fixes

article-image

Listings on Binance and Coinbase were once widely considered good for coin prices

article-image

Legacy subscribers will keep their $20 per month price

article-image

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was named acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday