Celsius Network is reportedly seeking court approval on a bankruptcy exit plan that would allow it to restart as a user-owned bitcoin miner.
The failed crypto lender also aims to partially repay customers whose funds have been frozen on the platform since June 2022 by the end of this year, its lawyer said Monday (Oct. 2) during its bankruptcy hearing, Bloomberg reported Monday.
According to Celsius lawyer Christopher S. Koenig, the new company, expected to emerge from Chapter 11, will be seeded with $450 million in capital and financial backing from a consortium named Fahrenheit LLC. Led by investment firm Arrington Capital, Koenig said the consortium believes in the business and is committed to supporting its revival.
However, Celsius’s plan is facing opposition from some customers who have had their funds locked on the platform. An affiliate of Lantern Ventures, claiming to be owed around $82 million, is also challenging the plan, arguing that the new business has been overvalued by Celsius’s advisers. Additionally, regulatory clearance is required before the new venture can proceed.
If approved, this would be the first instance of a failed crypto platform being reborn in Chapter 11 after a series of insolvencies in the industry last year. However, court documents reveal the risk of liquidation if the new company fails, which would result in Celsius customers receiving less repayment.
As part of the bankruptcy plan, Celsius intends to partially repay its creditors by distributing approximately $2 billion in ethereum and bitcoin, as well as offering stock in the new company. Customers would also have a stake in litigation against co-founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky and other former executives who have been charged with fraud by federal prosecutors. Mashinsky has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Celsius initially paused customer withdrawals in June last year due to a downturn in crypto prices and subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company was among several crypto platforms that faced financial difficulties, including failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, lender BlockFi Inc., and FTX, led by Sam Bankman-Fried.
In other recent news around the bankruptcy proceedings, PYMNTS reported on Sept. 25 that the Securities and Exchange Commission expressed reservations about Coinbase Global’s proposed involvement in Celsius Network’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy.
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Job cuts in government, technology and retail led the way as U.S. employers announced the largest number of cuts in one month since May 2020.
Among the 275,240 job cuts announced in March, 216,215 were in government, 15,055 were in technology and 11,709 were in retail, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a report released Thursday (April 3).
“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans to eliminate positions in the federal government,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the report. “It would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs.”
The total number of job cuts made in March was more than three times the 90,309 cuts announced in March 2024, according to the report.
By sector, compared to March 2024, government job cuts were almost six times higher, technology cuts were about 6% higher and retail cuts were nearly twice as high, per the report.
All the government job cuts made in March occurred in the federal government, the report said.
The top reason employers gave for cutting jobs in March was “DOGE impact,” which was cited for 216,670 of the month’s cuts, according to the report.
Other common reasons included store, unit or department closing, to which 17,666 job cuts were attributed, and market/economic conditions, which accounted for 11,594 cuts, per the report.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas also said in the report that employers are planning to hire fewer workers than they were a year ago. Companies’ hiring plans dropped by about 37%, from 21,102 in March 2024 to 13,198 in March 2025, according to the report.
The specter of uncertain job security may accelerate a spending pullback that is already in motion, PYMNTS reported Wednesday (April 2). Consumer confidence that was already shaken may have been further impacted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest snapshot of the labor market released Tuesday (April 1), which found that the labor market slowed in February, with a decline in job openings over the past year.
The Conference Board reported March 25 that consumer confidence slipped for the fourth straight month in March, due in part to a plunge in consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions.
