Celsius Countersues KeyFi, Claims Prime Trust Owes It $17M In Crypto

Bankrupt crypto lending firm Celsius has countersued decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol KeyFi and its CEO Jason Stone in the United States Bankruptcy Court wherein it claimed that the DeFi firm caused the crypto lender losses in millions. Celsius has also filed a lawsuit against Prime Trust for failing to return $17 million in crypto assets.

As per the lawsuit filing Tuesday, Celsius claims that Stone presented himself as a crypto bigwig and expert in DeFi and added that KeyFi lost millions worth of crypto belonging to the crypto lender due to incompetence and deceit.

"Defendants Stone and KeyFi, Stone's majority-owned corporate vehicle, proved themselves incapable of deploying coins profitably, and appear to have lost thousands of Celsius coins through their gross mismanagement. But the Defendants were not just incompetent, they also were thieves," Celsius stated.

The bankrupt crypto lender also claimed that KeyFi stole millions of dollars in crypto from a wallet belonging to Celsius. The countersuit comes a few weeks after KeyFi filed a lawsuit claiming that Celsius owes it a significant sum of money.

Celsius has also sued Prime Trust, a crypto infrastructure provider, stating that its former business partner owes it $17 million worth of cryptocurrency, The Block reported. Prime Trust provided custody services for the customers of Celsius residing in New York and Washington states. In June 2021, the two firms ended their partnership due to which Prime Trust had to pay the crypto lender about $119 million worth of crypto.

According to the Celsius lawsuit, Prime Trust did not pay the full amount that it was required to pay. Via the lawsuit, the crypto lending firm wants Prime Trust to hand over all the pending crypto along with any digital asset that Celsius customers might've sent to the platform following the dissolution of the partnership between the two.

"Upon the commencement of these bankruptcy proceedings, Prime Trust was obligated under the Bankruptcy Code to deliver all property belonging to Celsius that is in Prime Trust's possession to Celsius, including these remaining crypto assets, and should be ordered to turn them over now pursuant to section 542 of the Bankruptcy Code," the filing stated.