Breaking: Celsius Repays Aave Debt, Withdraws stETH Worth $416 Mln

Crypto lender Celsius has cleared its intention now as it continues to repay its Aave loan. The outstanding debt has now been reduced to almost $50 million. The crypto lender has also withdrawn stETH worth $416 million from the Aave address. Celsius could be possibly looking to repay its outstanding Compound loan and additional token liquidations this week.

The rate of loan repayment has increased immensely after the beleaguered crypto lender hired the new law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP as part of the restructuring plan. However, the possibility of bankruptcy filing can’t be ignored.

Celsius Actively Repays its Aave and Compound Loans

Celsius withdraws 63.50 million USDC from FTX to repay the Aave loan of $71 million. The outstanding Aave loan is USDC worth $8.42 million and REN worth $80,000. Undoubtedly, Celsius may repay its Aave debt completely by today itself.

Besides Aave, the crypto lender has an outstanding Compound debt of $50 million in DAI. Also, an outstanding $3.20 million fUSDC loan from Notional Finance is to be repaid by September 25.

Interestingly, Celsius has withdrawn 400,000 Staked Ethereum (stETH) collateral worth $416 million after repaying the USDC debt on the Aave wallet address. However, the lack of stETH liquidity could prevent Celsius to dump all stETH tokens. The Aave address is currently left with $10.92 million stETH.

DeFi analyst DeFiyst doubts the stETH could go to Curve pool, the tweet reads:

“My gut says this is all contingent on the C11 Bankruptcy docs being drafted. If they can make a feasible case to the Judge for them to hold stETH exposure PIK, as they believe it will result in higher value returned to creditors, then they can hold. Else, they will sell OTC.”

Do Loan Repayments Mean Withdrawals or Bankruptcy?

Celsius on July 7 closed its outstanding Maker loan, paying off over $220 million in just a week. Thereafter, the crypto lender dumped almost $500 million worth of wBTC to FTX.

Now, the Aave loan is almost closed as Celsius actively repays outstanding Aave and Compound loans. Moreover, the firm has removed stETH collateral and moved it to a different wallet. As per terms and conditions, if Celsius becomes bankrupt customers could lose all funds.

Making Celsius to resume withdrawals might be the only option. However, resuming withdrawals will give customers an opportunity to remove all their funds. Thus, a limited withdrawal option can help lower the rising FUD.