Celsius founder reportedly withdrew $10m before bankruptcy filing: FT

Details of the takedown will apparently be part of upcoming court filings, and the crypto platform's founder and former CEO may be forced to pay it back.

Celsius Network founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky reportedly withdrew $10 million from the crypto lending platform just weeks before the company froze customer funds and filed for bankruptcy.

The withdrawal was cited by Financial Times sources who said Mashinsky withdrew the funds between "mid and late May" before the June 12 break on all withdrawals.

Celsius was a popular crypto lending platform with 1.7 million customers and $25 billion in assets under management, but poor crypto market conditions ultimately drove the company into a cash deficit. $2.85 billion on its balance sheet.

This led to Celsius suspending customer withdrawals in June before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, as Mashinsky attempts to restructure and relaunch the business to be based on crypto custodial services .

The withdrawal raises questions about whether Mashinsky knew in advance that the company would freeze client funds and withdrawals.

However, a Celsius spokesperson told FT that the founder withdrew the cryptocurrency at the time to pay state and federal taxes.

“In the nine months leading up to this withdrawal, he consistently deposited cryptocurrency in amounts that totaled what he withdrew in May,” the spokesperson said, adding that Mashinsky and his family still had $44 million worth of crypto frozen on the platform.

Meanwhile, sources told the FT that the withdrawal had been pre-planned in line with Mashinsky's estate planning.

Approximately $8 million in retired assets were used to