Celsius Warns It Needs More Time Before Crypto Lending Business Can Resume

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Celsius Network, the crypto lender that suspended customer withdrawals last week following the wide selloff in digital assets, warns it needs more time before it can return to business as usual.

In a Monday blog post the group wrote: “It has been one week since we paused withdrawals, Swap, and transfers. We want our community to know that our objective continues to be stabilizing our liquidity and operations. This process will take time.”

The Hoboken, N.J.-based company last week suffered a major setback as the digital asset market reacted to the Federal Reserve’s biggest interest-rate hike in almost 30 years. Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, fell more than 20% over the past week but was up around 10% to $20,521.97 over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk.

Celsius pays customers as much as 18.6% a year for taking in deposits of digital tokens. Some compare it to a bank but it does not have the same regulatory protection and deposits are not federally insured. In May it held just under $12 billion in cryptocurrency deposits.

In the blog post it also said: “We plan to continue working with regulators and officials regarding this pause and our company’s determination to find a resolution.

“We are pausing our Twitter Spaces and AMAs to focus on navigating these unprecedented challenges and seeking to fulfill our responsibilities to our community.

“Acting in the interest of our community remains our priority and we will continue to work around the clock.”

Write to Rupert Steiner at [email protected]