Crypto Investors Cry Out to Court as They Lose Everything to Celsius, The Crypto Exchange

• Cryptocurrency investors who lent money to Celsius, one of the biggest crypto exchange platforms are crying that they have lost everything
• In a series of letters by hundreds of investors, they detail their anguish as beg the District Court of New York to help them recover their money from Celsius
• Celsius went bust in July when it announced that it has filed for bankruptcy where it was revealed that it is owing about $4 billion to 100,000 creditors

Crypto investors who poured their life’s savings into the collapsed exchange platform, Celsius are fighting to stay alive and afloat amid the crash which has hit hundreds of traders on the platform and has been described as a Ponzi scheme.

Celsius Network one of the biggest crypto lending platforms is currently in bankruptcy proceedings and facing claims that it was operating a Ponzi asset scheme by paying early investors with the money it got from new ones.

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Over one million investors' funds are trapped

About 1.7 million customers who have been trapped by the alleged scam are now begging the Southern District of New York to help them get their funds out.

One of the investors, 37-year-old Christian Ostheimer living in Connecticut told the court in a letter which has been admitted as an exhibit that he trusted Celsius with his retirement savings and has lost about $30,000 and this has brought him nothing more than a disaster.

Ostheimer told the judge to make a difference in the case as lawyers of big firms which invested in Celsius battle to have their clients paid first.

At its heyday in October last year, Celsius CEO, Alex Mashinsky said the cryptocurrency company had about $24 billion under its management, according to CNBC. Now, the firm says it has about $167 million in cash which it wants to use in restructuring the company. The company owes investors about $4.7 billion, according to its bankruptcy filings.

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According to the filings, the platform has more than 100,000 creditors, most of whom lent the company cash without any collateral to guarantee the arrangement. There are about 50 unsecured creditors like a trading Alameda Research which is owned by Sam Bankman-Fried.

Investors cry out

In about hundreds of letters sent to the court by investors, they plead to be the first to be paid by the company.

One of the investors, Katie Davis of Australia pleaded with the judge for the return of the $138,000 she and her husband have stranded on the Celsius platform.

“The thought of losing that amount of money is horrifying,” Davis wrote.

“If I do not get that back, I will end my life as the loss will impact my family and me significantly,” she wrote.

Jackpot: Crypto investors made $163 billion in 2021 as Nigeria in missing from the top 50 countries

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Recall that Legit.ng reported that 2021 was the year of cryptos as investors made a whopping $162.7 billion in proofits, a report by blockchain analytics company, Chainalysis said.

This is up by over 400 per cent from the $32.5 billion realised gain noticed in 2020.

Expectedly, investors in the United States took the major part of the profits accounting for approximately $47 billion of the total realised gains which are 29 per cent of the total amount, Nairametrics reports said.

Source: Legit.ng