Crypto consortium Fahrenheit has emerged as the winning bidder in the acquisition of the insolvent lender Celsius Network, court filings published Thursday revealed.
The consortium, backed by mining company US Bitcoin Corp., Arrington Capital, Proof Group, Steven Kokinos, and Ravi Kaza, will take ownership of Celsius’s institutional loan portfolio, staked crypto assets, the firm’s Bitcoin mining unit, and other cryptocurrency-related investments.
Fahrenheit will also provide the capital, management team, and technology to establish and operate the new public, regulatorily compliant company.
As part of the deal, the newly-formed company will receive a substantial amount of liquid cryptocurrency, estimated to be between $450 and $500 million. Additionally, US Bitcoin Corp will spearhead the construction of various Bitcoin mining facilities, including a 100-megawatt plant.
“We are very pleased that our competitive auction process produced a positive result for customers, including, most prominently, hundreds of millions of dollars in lower management fee savings and increased liquid cryptocurrency distributions to Celsius’ customers,” David Barse and Alan Carr, members of the Special Committee of the Board, said in a statement.
Barse and Carr added that the deal provides “excellent options for our exit from chapter 11,” and with the path now set, “we are looking forward to enabling our customers to move forward from this process.”
Celsius and Fahrenheit did not immediately respond to Decrypt‘s request for comment.
Backup plan
Celsius entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July last year, with a balance sheet hole of approximately $1.2 billion revealed shortly after by the bankruptcy court, and has been attempting to come up with a restructuring plan since.
Digital asset investment firm Novawulf was announced as the winning bidder for Celsius’ troubled assets in February this year, but eventually lost the race.
To finalize the agreement, which also needs approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Fahrenheit is required to submit a deposit of $10 million within three days, as stated in the court documents.
Furthermore, the company has announced that it has obtained a backup bid from the Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium (BRIC) that serves as a contingency plan and would come into play “if required for any reason.”
The Committee will share more info a lot the winning bid and back up bid soon. You can read more details about the auction here: https://t.co/8tK2e2oOzW
— Celsius Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (@CelsiusUcc) May 25, 2023
In such a scenario, BRIC would establish a publicly traded mining business where Celsius creditors would receive full ownership of the equity interests, along with a potential management contract with GlobalXDigital.
In the following weeks, Celsius plans to engage in negotiations and publicly file several important documents, subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.
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