Celsius CEO Has A Comeback Plan Following Crypto Crash

The CEO of bankrupt crypto lending firm Celsius Network has revealed to its employees a comeback plan after the crypto lender filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.

In a recording of the Sept. 8 meeting with employees, shared with The New York Times, Alex Mashinsky and Oren Blonstein, the Head of Innovation and Chief Compliance Officer at Celsius, aimed to rebuild the company and stated that the focus would be on custody services. Custody service providers store the crypto assets of their customers for a certain cost and also charge fee on certain types of transactions.

Interestingly, the new comeback project was codenamed Kelvin, inspired by the unit of temperature Kelvin (K).

The employees were skeptical about the plan Mashinsky presented and questioned its very existence, the outlet reported. However, the executive pointed out that the process is similar to what many famous brands like Pepsi witnessed. Pepsi went bankrupt in 1923 and 1931.

"Does it make the Pepsi taste less good?" Mashinsky asked employees. "Delta filed for bankruptcy. Do you not fly Delta because they filed for bankruptcy?"

According to The New York Times, a recording of the meeting was also sent to Tiffany Fong, a Celsius customer who made several videos questioning the Celsius crash and its practices. This recording was then shared with the newspaper.

In a statement, a Celsius spokesperson said that the crypto lending firm holds regular internal meetings to "prepare for all scenarios."

"Our employees are central to our efforts," the statement said, adding, "We will continue to rely on them to assist in preparing whatever requirements would be necessary to execute the final recovery plan as quickly as possible."

The crypto lender paused withdrawals in June and investors are still not in control of their funds. The firm is also dealing with a lawsuit from a DeFi firm KeyFi which claims that the crypto lender owes it money.