Popular bitcoin loan site Celsius has blocked all withdrawals this Monday.
The native Celsius (CEL) token’s price plummeted by more than 50% as a result of the announcement.
It’s unclear when customers will be able to withdraw their funds, but the business says that doing so is its “ultimate goal.”
Due to market conditions, Celsius has also disabled swaps and transfers between accounts.
Prior to the announcement, the lending platform transferred $250 million from the Aave decentralized finance protocol to the FTX exchange. The rationale for such a change has yet to be revealed, leading to more speculation among the community.
The CEO of Celsius, Alex Mashinsky, stated on June 11 that claims about users being unable to withdraw funds were “FUD and misinformation.” Mashinsky added in a separate tweet that he had a lot of enemies since he was winning.
Following the collapse of Terra in early May, a large number of Celsius users began to complain about withdrawal concerns. Customers, on the other hand, were assured that their cash was secure.
“It’s finished. The Celsius Ponzi scheme has been exposed as a fraud “Nathan Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg Research, says The famed short-selling firm’s CEO also recounted how the corporation first declined to say whether or not the firm’s former chief financial officer, Yarom Shalem, was detained in Israel last November.
Several state securities authorities accused Celsius of breaking federal securities laws last year.
In mid-May, Celsius had over two million users and $11.8 billion in assets under management.
The market fall has been worsened by the Celsius news, with Bitcoin, the largest crypto, re-entering the $25,000 range.