Celsius moves $781M in stETH just as Lido withdrawals open

It appears that embattled crypto lender Celsius is wasting nary clip successful shifting its Ethereum staking tokens from liquid staking level Lido which has conscionable enabled withdrawals.

On May 15, a transaction was identified connected Celsius wallets for 428,015 stETH (Lido staked Ether) to the Lido staked Ethereum wallet. The whopping stash was worthy $781 cardinal astatine the clip of transportation which immoderate believe is successful mentation for withdrawal.

On-chain information points to Celsius performing a test withdrawal of 0.1 stETH a fewer hours later.

Celsius stETH transportation – Etherscan.io

According to Bitcoin pioneer and Celsius creditor Simon Dixon, Celsius could beryllium “lining up for staking straight without Lido successful the middle.” It could besides beryllium indebtedness collateral for Celsius restructuring plans, helium added.

428k #Celsius $stETH connected the determination - apt lining up for staking straight without #LIDO successful the middle. That’s the indebtedness collateral projected for NewCo. Should get an update during tribunal proceeding this week - 17th May - No tribunal support needed for this it seems https://t.co/pwT4fR1Qjt https://t.co/4tdSsMegA8

— Simon Dixon (@SimonDixonTwitt) May 15, 2023

Blockchain quality steadfast Arkham Intelligence highlighted that Celsius transferred 40,928 ETH past week to a astute declaration called “Figment ETH2 Beacon Depositor 1”. This was past moved to the Ethereum Beacon Chain deposit declaration connected May 12 according to Etherscan.

Related: Celsius creditors request transparency connected ‘suspicious’ FTX transactions

Lido, which takes a 10% staking commission, enabled withdrawals connected May 15 with a protocol upgrade to V2.

“Lido V2 introduces 2 large components, with the astir user-facing facet being Ethereum withdrawals. This allows Ethereum stakers with Lido to straight unstake ETH done the protocol.”

Lido presently accounts for 29% of each staked Ethereum, oregon 6.27 cardinal ETH valued astatine astir $11.3 billion.

Meanwhile, determination is 54,046 ETH presently successful the withdrawal queue and this doesn’t see the Celsius stash yet, according to on-chain analytics firm Nansen.

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