Celsius Network, a crypto lender, is in the final stages of an auction for its assets. At a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing in Manhattan, Celsius attorney Ross Kwasteniet said the current lead bidder is Fahrenheit LLC, a consortium that includes blockchain-based venture capital firm Arrington Capital. The bids are “hundreds of millions of dollars” higher than the initial bid by NovaWulf LLC, a digital asset investment firm.
Celsius initially planned to accept NovaWulf’s bid, but took more time to develop additional bids from Fahrenheit and Blockchain Recovery Investment Committee (BRIC). Celsius plans to choose between the Fahrenheit and NovaWulf bids, since both offer a way to continue Celsius’s lending business as well as its bitcoin mining business. Celsius has not set a deadline for final offers, but expects to conclude the auction within a week.
Kwasteniet said he does not expect Celsius to share the fate of Voyager Digital, a crypto lending company forced to liquidate after regulatory concerns scuttled Binance.US’s plan to acquire it. He said Celsius has kept regulatory concerns front of mind and is confident that either party would be able to consummate a transaction.