Alex Mashinsky, who quit as CEO of Celsius on September 27, is still moving crypto out of wallets even though customers can’t withdraw their money.
Nansen’s data shows that since the beginning of October, Alex Mashinsky’s wallets have sent almost $1 million in CEL and USDC to UniSwap and MetaMask.
On-chain data from the analytics platform Nansen shows that a steady flow of Celsius’ CEL token and Circle’s USDC stablecoin has been leaving Mashinsky’s six wallets for the last month.
Coffezilla, a blockchain detective who exposes crypto scams on YouTube, claims to have found another wallet controlled by Mashinsky that moved about $225,376 in CEL and USDC in the last month. Nansen hasn’t confirmed that this wallet belongs to this person, but on-chain data shows that it was funded by a confirmed Mashinsky wallet.
This is on top of the $28,242 that Mashinsky moved in a few days in August, which CoinDesk has already reported, and the nearly $27 million that executives took out in two parts before the company went bankrupt.
CoinDesk asked Mashinsky for a comment, but he hadn’t replied by the time the paper went to press.
On-chain data shows that Mashinsky’s collection of wallets still holds crypto worth $197,301, most of which are CEL and USDC.
When will Celsius’s custody withdrawals start up again?
Due to its high exposure to the troubled crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, Celsius ran into financial trouble during the summer market downturn. In June, it stopped withdrawals and on July 13 filed for bankruptcy.
Users are probably thinking about withdrawals, especially now that Mashinsky and other executives are cashing out.
But they may have to wait a little while longer.
This month, the trustee in charge of the company’s bankruptcy said that a request to reopen withdrawals was “too soon.”
In the objection, lawyers for the Trustee’s office said, “At this point, there are too many questions about the debtors’ cryptocurrency holdings to allow any withdrawals or sales.” “These questions come up because the debtors aren’t being honest and because the debtors haven’t filed their schedules and statements of financial affairs.”
Late last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn, who is in charge of the case, told an independent examiner to write a report about how Celsius handled its finances and customer accounts by mid-November.
With this report, a schedule will be made for when customers will be able to cash out their holdings.
