May 31, 2023 1:08 am
Crypto News
Celsius Bankruptcy: Crypto Lender Seeks Funds from Bitmain
Crypto lender Celsius has filed for bankruptcy and is now seeking to raise $14 million from Bitmain mining vouchers before they expire. The move comes after the company joined forces with Core Scientific, another crypto mining firm, in an attempt to offload their assets and repay creditors.
Celsius, which was founded in 2017, has been a major player in the cryptocurrency lending market. It allowed users to borrow or lend digital assets using its platform, but struggled to stay afloat amid the bear market of 2018-2019. The company’s financial woes have been further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funds generated from selling the Bitmain mining vouchers will be used to repay creditors who are owed money by Celsius. The company has previously sought debt restructuring options from other lenders but those efforts have not yet borne fruit.
Bitmain is one of the largest manufacturers of cryptocurrency mining hardware and their vouchers are often used as a form of payment for services rendered by miners. The vouchers have an expiration date and must be used within a certain period of time or else they become invalid.
This latest move shows that Celsius is determined to stay afloat despite its financial struggles and is looking for creative ways to generate funds and repay its creditors. Whether or not this strategy proves successful remains to be seen, but it could provide some much needed relief for those affected by the company’s bankruptcy filing.
Shanghai Hard Fork: Ethereum’s Move to PoS
Ethereum is set to launch the Sepolia testnet on February 4th in preparation for the upcoming Shanghai hard fork on the main Ethereum blockchain. This will be the second round of testing of staked ether (ETH) withdrawals, following simulations on the Zhejiang testnet. The Sepolia testnet will be followed by another testnet, Goerli, before the hard fork takes place.
The Shanghai hard fork is part of Ethereum’s multi-phase upgrade plan, dubbed Ethereum 2.0. It is intended to improve scalability and efficiency while also providing more robust security features. The upgrade will introduce a new consensus algorithm called Proof-of-Stake (PoS), which will replace the current Proof-of-Work (PoW) system used by Ethereum.
The Sepolia testnet is designed to simulate how PoS works in a live environment, allowing developers to identify and address any issues before the hard fork occurs. It will also allow users to withdraw their ETH from staking pools and move them back onto the main chain once it has been upgraded with PoS.
The Shanghai hard fork marks an important milestone in Ethereum’s transition from a PoW network to a PoS network. Once complete, it should significantly improve scalability and performance while also providing more secure features that are better suited for modern applications such as decentralized finance (DeFi).
Ethereum developers have been working tirelessly over the past few months to ensure that everything goes smoothly when the Shanghai hard fork takes place next month. With testing underway on both Sepolia and Goerli testnets, it looks like everything is on track for a successful launch come February 4th.