By
Steve Muchoki
April 23rd, 2024
The Celsius Network received a tentative plan from a former lead investor to deploy financially innovative countermeasures for recovery.
Simon Dixon, founder of Web3 investment firm BnkToTheFuture, has proposed a recovery plan for crypto lender Celsius Network. The proposed recourse offers to assist Celsius by using a similar financial innovation strategy deployed to Bitfinex to help prevent liquidation back in 2016. However, in his prescribed recovery plan submitted to the Celsius’ board and CEO Alex Mashinsky, Dixon did not provide specific details. Nonetheless, he wrote:
“I believe traditional finance will not have a timely solution for Celsius as we saw in the past with Mt. Gox that still remains unresolved 10 years later. I believe that this can only be solved with a solution using financial innovation like we did with Bitfinex that was resolved within 9 months and worked out very well for depositors.”
In addition, Dixon also suggested that any further sign of interest in his solution provision by Celsius would kickstart a detailed blueprint outlay. He concluded his proposal to the crypto loan company confirming that BnkToTheFuture has the experience and technology to help.
According to Dixon, his offer to help Celsius out of its financial problem was also borne out of personal interest. Firstly, the BnkToTheFuture founder says he is a Celsius shareholder and lender. Dixon also said that the firm spearheaded the first investment round for Celsius back in June 2020. Furthermore, BnkToTheFuture has more than 1,000 investors currently exposed to the Celsius Network.
Dixon’s proposed Celsius recovery plan also plans to help alleviate the “short-term systemic impact on those that own Bitcoin (BTC)”. Celsius had suspended withdrawals, swaps, and transfers due to “extreme market conditions”.
Celsius Recovery Plan Likened to Mt. Gox, Bitfinex Case Studies
Dixon likened the current Celsius situation to the Mt. Gox hack back in 2014, which subsequently crashed the crypto exchange. However, he expressed doubt that any type of traditional finance can help, emphasizing the need to apply “financial innovation”.
BnkToTheFuture lent a helping hand to crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016, rescuing it from liquidation. The British Virgin Islands-registered crypto exchange had lost 120,000 BTC (around $72 million at the time) to a hack.
Instead of pursuing liquidation proceedings, Bitfinex opted to execute an innovative recovery plan. The plan was to repay affected customers BFX tokens representing the value of the stolen funds. As Dixon elucidated:
“In 2016, Bitfinex needed a plan to recover from their hack and the company I co-founded, BnkToTheFuture.com, supported them and executed a recovery that involved security tokens, debt, and equity and gave investors a very high return for the high risk they took.”
These tokens were tradable on the open market or could be held for future repayment of $1.00 per token. Later in the month, BnkToTheFuture, with Bitfinex’s blessing, facilitated customer conversion of BFX tokens into company equity.
Seven months later, the strategy came full circle. Victims recovered 75% to 100% of their funds through various measures at their disposal.