Lending platform Celsius Network transferred 24,463 WBTC (~$533 million) to the FTX crypto exchange address just hours after paying the debt on the MakerDAO DeFi protocol.

Celsius Dunking 24k $WBTC (worth half a billion dollars) to FTX.

There is nothing to see here. pic.twitter.com/phFcDZXZ7H

— Nansen Intern 🧭 (@nansen_intern) July 7, 2022

On July 7, the company closed its vault on MakerDAO and removed 23,962 WBTC from the protocol. Experts assumed Celsius would sell assets via over-the-counter transactions, but later noted the platform’s intention to use the spot market.

Users noticed that after the transaction, the company owns about 98% of all WBTC on FTX.

I’m worried about the privacy of the FTX gigaentity mixer 🤣 celsius now has 98% of all the wbtc inside pic.twitter.com/tFUXdvPMxQ

— alto | dollar.eth (@etheraltog) July 7, 2022

Speaking to CoinDesk, Fundstrat analyst Walter Teng explained that Celsius’s on-chain leverage activity will put pressure on the value of the assets the company uses as collateral.

In the past 24 hours, bitcoin price has risen 6.7% and tested above $22,000, suggesting that market participants were relatively calm during a major transaction. At the time of writing, the asset is trading around $27,750.

According to CoinGecko, WBTC maintains its parity with Bitcoin. The price deviation of the two assets does not exceed 0.18%.

At the same time, Arca’s investment director, Jeff Dorman, described Celsius’ decision to sell bitcoin on the spot market as strange.

Has anyone stopped to question why BTC is used as collateral? BTC, not USD, was deposited in Celsius by customers, and Celsius used it (via wBTC) to generate returns.

Celsius owes BTC, not USD. Why would they sell BTC when they owe their customers money? https://t.co/KzqxIh8Meo

— Jeff Dorman, CFA (@jdorman81) July 7, 2022

“Anyone wondering why BTC was used as collateral in the first place? BTC, not US dollars, was deposited with Celsius by customers, and the company used it to generate revenue (via WBTC). Celsis should return BTC, not USD. Why would they sell bitcoin when they have to give it back to their customers?” he wrote.

On June 13, Celsius suspended withdrawals, clearing and transfers between accounts “due to extreme market conditions”. Analysts suggested that the real reason for what happened was a “liquidity crisis”.

Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown University, commented on the company’s later actions, noting that its management was based on “an adventure with the resurrection.” He expressed the view that the bankruptcy of the company was almost inevitable.

Former DeFi contractor Celsius – KeyFi Inc. – sued the landing platform, accusing it of refusing to fulfill its contractual obligations.

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