QUADRIGA INITIATIVE
CRYPTO WATCHDOG & FRAUD RECOVERY PLATFORM
A COMMUNITY-BASED, NOT-FOR-PROFIT
$0 USD
OCTOBER 2022
UNITED STATES
CELSIUS
DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS
"Celsius slid into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, revealing a $1.2 billion hole in its balance sheet." "CeFi lender Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13, following liquidity problems triggered by the Terra ecosystem implosion. It later emerged that the firm was engaged in high-risk trading strategies, resulting in heavy losses."
"Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules, a “Creditor Matrix,” or list of creditors’ names and addresses, is required for public record. The court uses this to send notices and claims data for an open and transparent bankruptcy process." "The firm appears to have complied with a federal court rule that allows personal information like home addresses to be redacted, however."
"In a court filing dated Sept. 28, Celsius requested to redact the personally identifiable information of its users."
"US Trustee William Harrington objected to the request, arguing that redacting names and other information would violate the principle that all bankruptcy proceedings should be “open and transparent.”"
“The movant [Celsius] must demonstrate extraordinary circumstances and a compelling need to obtain protection to justify any such request,” Harrington said. Allowing incomplete statements would be a “slippery slope,” he said, as it would create an unfavorable precedent for crypto and other industries.
"The creditor list is split into two types, commercial creditors and users that Celsius owes. Information on the former is in full, whereas addresses for Celsius users have been redacted."
"On Oct. 5, disgraced CeFi lender Celsius filed Schedules of Assets and Liabilities and Statements of Financial Affairs as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings."
"In respect of Celsius users, the document showed names, coin quantity, and coin value, among other details. However, addresses were redacted at the company’s request."
"The crypto space was rocked after bankrupt crypto lender Celsius revealed the names and transaction history of hundreds of thousands of its customers in a court filing. That data has now become the basis for an independent online tool that enables anyone to search for the names of Celsius users and view how much they lost. Celsius has faced significant backlash, with many highlighting the fact that its users’ on-chain activity can be doxed by matching dates and amounts to transaction data. It’s a vivid reminder of just how public blockchain transactions are."
"The 14,500-page long document contained information such as customer names, crypto wallet IDs, transaction types and amounts, which services the customer had used, and the types and quantities of tokens held."
"A new search tool released over the weekend appears to sift through a recently released database of Celsius customer data and pulls together a video game style leaderboard showing how much money they’ve lost since the firm filed for bankruptcy. The top three names reportedly lost $40.5 million, $38.2 million, and $26.4 million respectively. Celsius currently owes roughly $4.7 billion to users but simply doesn’t have the money to pay them."
"Celsius just doxxed all their users and oh by the way—- we found out their CEO withdrew $10 million right before bankruptcy."
"Celsius x Ledger leaks are great for anyone looking for easy $5 wrench attack targets
Export 14k pages of names from the Celsius, then match names with 250k names from the Ledger leak
You now have a full name, address, email, phone number, and financial info of a LOT of people"
"Angel investor Stephen Cole labeled a website providing searchable data on Celsius users’ losses “a perfectly horrendous illustration of the risks of KYC.”"
"Commenting on the Celsius “doxing,” the CEO of Luxor Mining, Nick Hansen, said the situation is “a perfect demonstration of why KYC only hurts honest consumers.”"
"This Celsius dox is one of the egregious privacy violations in crypto history. Many on this list may have their safety at risk. It’s more important than ever to maximize your digital security."
"The user data leak has already received widespread condemnation on social media. Nick Hansen, CEO and co-founder of Luxor, said on Twitter that: “This Celsius leak may go down as one of the greatest breaches of customer information ever.”"
"Its latest exposé goes to show the perils and downsides of centralized finance, Michael Pearl, COO at smart transaction development platform Kirobo, said.
“While DeFi offers transparency regarding the activities of anonymous wallets, it does not match a name and a face to that wallet (if one undertakes some basic precautions),” Pearl told Blockworks in an email."
“Typically, when you dox you don’t get rugged. And on the other hand, when you get rugged you don’t get doxxed,” one user stressed on Twitter. “Celsius tier 1 sh** storm.”
"However, @former68w chimed in to say, having searched himself, it appears the website is not accurate. He concluded that either the documents filed with the court were fraudulent or there was an error in the compilation of data on the website. Another explanation is that Celsius’ records are not up to date."
"Others have expressed similar inaccuracies, which casts doubt on the precision of the creditor payout process."
In July 2022, cryptocurrency lender Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to liquidity problems caused by the Terra ecosystem collapse, revealing a $1.2 billion deficit. Under Chapter 11, a list of creditors' names and addresses, known as the "Creditor Matrix," is required for transparency, which Celsius complied with, redacting personal information. However, US Trustee William Harrington objected to redaction, emphasizing the need for open and transparent bankruptcy proceedings. Celsius's creditor list includes commercial creditors and users owed funds. Despite Celsius's request for redaction, addresses for users are hidden. A leaked document exposed customer information, triggering backlash. A tool was developed to search for user names and losses, revealing the extent of losses and privacy breaches. The leak has sparked discussions about KYC practices and centralized finance risks. Some inaccuracies in the leaked data have been reported, raising doubts about the accuracy of creditor payout records.
Market Commentary - October 14th, 2022 - The Coinsquare Blog (Oct 22)
New Tool Shows Just How Much Users Lost in Celsius Bankruptcy - Decrypt (Dec 11)
https://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases21/Celsius-Order-9.17.21.pdf (Dec 15)
@TheBitfi Twitter (Dec 15)
Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius Reveals Thousands of Users' Transaction Histories in Court Filing - Decrypt (Aug 29)
'Horrendous' KYC risks on show as website detailing Celsius users' losses goes live (Aug 29)
Court filing 'doxing' Celsius users draws questions on KYC, bankruptcy processes (Aug 29)
New Tool Shows Big Losses in the Celsius Crypto Meltdown (Aug 29)
Celsius Exchange Data Dump Is a Gift to Crypto Sleuths—and Thieves | WIRED (Aug 29)
Celsius Exposes User Information in Public Court Docs - Blockworks (Aug 29)
Transactions Made by Celsius Customers Revealed in 14,500-Page Document | CoinMarketCap (Aug 29)
Hiltzik: The victims of the collapse of crypto firm Celsius - Los Angeles Times (Aug 29)
Bankruptcy Court Publishes 14,000 Pages of Celsius Customer Usernames and Trade History – Bitcoin News (Aug 29)
@hdevalence Twitter (Aug 29)
Celsius Network - Wikipedia (Jan 30)
Celsius: Check How Much Money Have You Lost | Criptokio (Aug 29)
CelsiusNetworth - Home (Aug 29)
@fbsloXBT Twitter (Aug 29)
@JessePeltan Twitter (Aug 29)
@former68w Twitter (Aug 29)
https://cases.stretto.com/public/x191/11749/PLEADINGS/1174909282280000000026.pdf (Aug 29)
@zackvoell Twitter (Aug 29)
Celsius Execs Cashed out $17 Million Before Halting Withdrawals (Dec 15)
