Tether Vows to Fight Celsius' $3.3B 'Shakedown' Litigation

On Friday, Celsius asked a U.S. court to order Tether to relinquish a total of 57,428.64 bitcoin.

Crypto stablecoin issuer Tether said it will fight a lawsuit filed by bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, calling it a “shakedown” attempt after the U.S. court filing sought to reclaim bitcoin that was already liquidated.

Celsius filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday, seeking to recover a total of 57,428.64 bitcoin (BTC) from Tether, or the “present value of all Bitcoin,” which currently stands at about $3.3 billion.

The loan agreement between Celsius and Tether allowed Celsius to borrow stablecoins “to operate certain critical aspects of its business,” the lawsuit stated. However, when the market crashed in mid-2022, Tether allegedly made “preferential and fraudulent transfers” of bitcoin to protect itself from the impending bankruptcy, according to the filing, which was filed "ninety days" prior to Celsius' bankruptcy.

"Specifically, on several occasions, Tether demanded, and received, a significant amount of new, incremental collateral to improve its position in the impending bankruptcy," the lawsuit stated.

Celsius also claimed in the filing that Tether applied Celsius’s bitcoin against obligations owed to it at an average price of $20,656.88 each, “considerably less than Bitcoin’s market closing price on June 13th, to wit: $22,487.39.”

"Thus, these preferential and fraudulent transfers of Bitcoin should be avoided, and the Bitcoin or its value should be recovered for the benefit of Celsius’s estate," the filing stated. Celsius also requested $100 million in damages for breaches of contract.

Tether said in a statement on its website that the agreement required “Celsius to post additional collateral to avoid the liquidation of its BTC” when the market crashed, and “when Celsius chose not to post additional BTC it directed Tether to liquidate the BTC collateral Tether held.”

"This lawsuit incredibly now seeks the return of approximately US$2.4 billion worth of BTC from Tether, despite the BTC being liquidated at Celsius’ direction and with Celsius’ consent at June 2022 prices," Tether said in the statement, without disclosing how it arrived at the $2.4 billion figure.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a post on X that the lawsuit is trying to claim that we should give back the bitcoin that were sold to cover Celsius’ position.

"There are plenty of flaws in the claimant’s filing and we're very confident in the solidity of our contract and our actions ... This lawsuit will be fought till the end. It's important to set an example on behalf of the entire industry that shameless money grabs will not work," Ardoino said in the post.

Celsius' bankruptcy was officially closed after a court approved a reorganization plan in November.