Celsius Network Frees up $440M in Bitcoin after Repaying Maker Loan

Celsius Network, a crypto lender that halted user activities last month amid a liquidity crisis, reclaimed $440 million of collateral on Thursday after it fully paid off a loan on Maker, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform. 

On-chain data shows that a Celsius wallet repaid the remaining $41.2 million of the loan in DAI, Maker’s native stablecoin. 

That in turn released 21,962 Wrapped Bitcoins (WBTC) worth roughly $448 million, which was pledged as collateral of the loan, giving them a huge bump in liquidity. 

Celsius halted withdrawals, Swap and transactions between accounts on June 12 to solve liquidity pressures. Since then, they have yet to allow their users to resume those activities, creating an extremely disgruntled and frustrated user base. 

However, their halted activities on their platform could soon be a thing of the past as they will be able to use the freed up collateral to meet creditor demands and customer withdrawals. In addition, their website hints at those halted activities being a thing of the past. 

“Our Website is currently being updated. Related to the previously stated pause on withdrawals, Swap and transfers between accounts, some of our products and services are temporarily unavailable.” 

Could this mean an end to some of the paused activities or is this simply a routine update to their website? 

Despite freeing up collateral, Celsius’ native cryptocurrency, CEL, is down 4.95% in the last 24 hours, currently valued at $0.8189, according to Bitpush Terminal data. That puts the cryptocurrency down more than 80% from its all time high of $7.91. 

Despite the recent news, Celsius users are still trying to find out the benefit the freed up liquidity means for them. Here are some comments from Twitter showcasing user indignation: 

Author: Tyler Irvin

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