Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, has discussed the company’s strategy for acquiring Celsius. The remarks are timed to coincide with news that FTX US is contemplating making a bid for Celsius, after its $1.3 billion auction purchase of the assets of defunct lender Voyager Digital last week.
Bankman-Fried tweeted that the company’s offer is based on “fair market pricing, no discounts” in response to BnkToTheFuture creator Simon Dixon’s claim that FTX was seeking financing at a $32Billion value to purchase Celsius for “cents on the dollar.” The founder of FTX replied that their purpose isn’t to earn funds purchasing assets for pennies on the dollar; rather, they aim to make the consumers whole again.
On September 27th, rumors began circulating that FTX had submitted the highest offer to acquire Voyager Digital in a transaction valued at $1.4 billion. However, the platform did indicate that users will be allowed to trade and keep cryptocurrencies following the end of the company’s chapter 11 litigation on the FTX US, which is the sole piece of information provided about the future of Voyager clients and their bitcoin holdings. However, it appears that Celsius’ depositors are in an even more precarious position at this time, with the consensus being that the company may look to auction off its billions of dollars’ worth of assets.
Alternatively, the company may propose a plan to repay customers in Celsius (CEL) tokens. An independent investigation of Celsius’s finances is underway, and the results of this investigation will have a significant bearing on the course of the bankruptcy proceedings. Celsius has received pushback from many authorities for its proposed sale of stablecoin holdings, and the DOJ has raised concerns about the company’s request to allow withdrawals for some consumers before the examiner report is finalized.
