Celsius agrees to receive settlement worth about KRW 300 billion from Tether…bankruptcy proceedings in final stages

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has agreed to receive a settlement of USD 299,500,000 (about KRW 300 billion) in its legal dispute with stablecoin issuer Tether. This amounts to roughly 7 percent of the USD 4.3 billion (about KRW 4.3 trillion) Celsius initially sought.

On the 14th (local time), The Block reported that the settlement was announced by the "Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium (BRIC)", which is managing bankruptcy assets on behalf of Celsius creditors. BRIC is a joint venture co-founded by global asset manager VanEck and GXD Labs.

In August 2024, Celsius filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming that Tether improperly liquidated 39,542 bitcoins in violation of a 10-hour waiting period shortly before the 2022 bankruptcy and seeking USD 4.3 billion in damages. The court allowed hearings on the main claims in July, and this settlement ends a dispute that had lasted more than a year.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether's CEO, said on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter) that "all matters related to the Celsius bankruptcy have been resolved amicably."

Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2022 after revealing a capital shortfall of USD 1.2 billion on its financial statements, and after completing bankruptcy proceedings in November 2023 it has been in the process of liquidating unrecovered assets and recovering litigation funds under BRIC's management.

Meanwhile, Alex Mashinsky, Celsius's co-founder and former CEO, was sentenced in May 2025 to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to commodity fraud and manipulating the price of the company's token. Prosecutors said he "led the largest fraud in the crypto industry."

Tether denied all allegations during the lawsuit, calling it "an attempt to shift responsibility for Celsius's mismanagement onto third parties," but with this settlement it has effectively resolved the legal risk.