- Celsius filed a lawsuit against Tether, alleging misappropriation of assets.
- Tether calls the lawsuit baseless and adds that the platform will fight against it.
- The lawsuit is based on a 2022 agreement in which Tether provided USDT to Celsius.
In a recent development, the defunct crypto exchange Celsius filed a lawsuit against the blockchain platform Tether, alleging misappropriation of assets. In response, Tether has decided to fight against what CEO Paolo Ardoino addressed as a “baseless” lawsuit.
In 2022, Tether entered into an agreement with Celsius, making USDT available to the latter. While Tether availed the stablecoin in amounts requested by Celsius, it was collateralized by Bitcoin. As Bitcoin began falling in June 2022, Celius was supposed to submit additional collateral to avoid BTC liquidation. However, Celsius failed to do so and demanded Tether to liquidate the Bitcoins that Tether held as collateral, closing out an approximately $815 million position.
With the current lawsuit, Celsius seeks to claw back $2.4 billion in Bitcoin from Tether. According to Tether’s statement, the exchange claimed it sent almost 39,542.42 BTC in collateral for Tether’s USDT. In addition, Celsius argued that the BTC liquidation exactly covered Celsius’ debt without the need for extra collateral.
However, Tether called the lawsuit bullying, adding that Celsius’ allegations are unwarranted. Positing that the firm would “vigorously defend” itself against the litigation, Tether cited,
Tether will never fall prey to shameless litigation money grabs. We will vigorously defend ourselves against the unwarranted allegations made against us, and we expect to prevail in this litigation.
Commenting on the matter, Ardoino took to X (formerly Twitter) and asserted that the Celsius lawsuit has plenty of flaws, which in turn is enough to boost Tether’s confidence. Further, he assured his clients that the company’s equity is quite large, about $12 billion, adding that the lawsuit would in no way affect the customer’s funds.
Moreover, Ardoino expressed his optimism in the case, pinpointing that such attacks could never scare him or his company. He remains confident about the platform’s ability to prove its correctness in the court against Celsius.
It is noteworthy that the exact amount Celsius seeks in return is still a question. Though the amount cited by Tether in the blog post and many reports is $2.4 billion, according to page 28 of the legal filing, Celsius asks Tether to return a total of 57,428.64 Bitcoin (15,658.21 BTC+ 2,228.01 BTC+ 39,542.42 BTC), accounting to about $3.48 billion.
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