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Celsius Co-Founders Pulled Out Millions of Dollars in Assets Before Crypto Firm Froze Client Withdrawals

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  • Celsius' co-founders took out millions of dollars in assets right before the company prevented customer withdrawals on the platform.
  • Late Wednesday, Celsius filed a Statement of Financial affairs, which provided a breakdown of executives' transactions.
  • The disclosure filing follows the resignations of two of the co-founders.

Top executives at bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network took out millions of dollars in assets prior to the company halting withdrawals of customer funds, according to a new court filing.

Late Wednesday, Celsius filed a Statement of Financial Affairs to the court, providing a breakdown of the withdrawals of former CEO Alex Mashinsky, former strategy chief Daniel Leon, technology chief Nuke Goldstein and other executives.

Mashinsky withdrew more than $10 million in cryptocurrency in May 2022. Leon withdrew almost $7 million, and an additional $4 million worth of Celsius' native token called CEL was used for collateral for a loan in late May.

Goldstein withdrew about $13 million and posted an additional $6 million worth of CEL for loan collateral. Lawyers for Goldstein told CNBC that his withdrawals were directed into other accounts held by the executive at Celsius. Net of deposits, Goldstein's withdrawals came in at roughly $500,000, the lawyers said, adding that these were regular monthly transactions and differ "materially" from actions by other executives.

Mashinsky and Leon recently resigned from the company. Goldstein is still partaking in the company's restructuring plans, according to audio leaked to CNBC.

Before the company froze customer funds in June, Celsius was one of the largest crypto lending platforms with more than $8 billion in loans to clients and almost $12 billion in assets under management. The firm had lured 1.7 million customers by offering yields as high as 17% on crypto deposits.

Celsius was lending that money out to hedge funds and others willing to pay an even higher yield. But that model came crashing down along with the market collapse and the so-called crypto winter, causing Celsius to freeze assets and eventually file for bankruptcy.

Other Celsius executives made withdrawals of below $100,000, according to the filing. The only other executive to pull out more than that was the former investment chief Frank van Etten, who withdrew over $216,000 days before the freeze.

The company did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Correction: This story is updated with additional figures regarding Goldstein's transactions, as provided by his lawyers

WATCH: Celsius CEO Alex Mashinksy resigns

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