Celsius, the lending platform, successfully withdrew 500 million UST in emergency before facing a collapse, but still does not disclose the flow of funds.

A recent report from a research institution indicated that Celsius Network had deposited at least $500 million in Anchor and successfully exited before the collapse of UST. Although the CEO of Celsius vehemently denied this on Twitter, it seems that no favorable evidence has been presented to refute the claim.

Appearing as a lending platform, but actually a venture capital firm?

According to analysis by The Block Research and blockchain data firm Hoptrail, the Celsius wallet has invested at least 261,000 ETH in Anchor since December 19th of last year:

• 3/17: Invested 146,000 ETH
• 4/6 – 5/3: Invested 115,000 ETH
• 5/11: Emergency withdrawal of 225,000 ETH

Finally, sources informed The Block Research that Anchor did not have any outstanding Celsius funds, meaning the remaining 36,000 ETH was also successfully withdrawn.

Researcher Igor Igamberdiev stated that the process of Celsius depositing funds into Anchor was quite complex and emphasized that the figures in this study are definitely smaller than Celsius's actual operational funds:

1. Pledging ETH to Lido to obtain stETH
2. Depositing stETH into the Anchor vault to obtain bETH
3. Transferring to the Terra chain via the cross-chain bridge Wormhole
4. Depositing bETH into Anchor

Igamberdiev pointed out that Celsius lends UST by pledging Bonded ETH (bETH) and ultimately deposits it into Anchor to earn profits, which is indeed safer than directly purchasing UST on the market and depositing it into Anchor.

Founders only refute through tweets

Due to The Block's research director Larry Cermak's tweet on May 11th, revealing that institutions like Jump and Celsius are participating in a $1 billion financing of Terra.

Therefore, both Celsius and founder Alex Mashinsky took to Twitter on the same day to state that they were not involved in any aid program related to LUNA.

Swan Bitcoin founder Cory Klippsten has repeatedly criticized Celsius on Twitter, accusing them of:

• Managing over-collateralized funds solely by luck to avoid UST liquidation.
• Being an unregulated hedge fund that holds retail funds, which cannot be monitored or recovered by retail investors.
• Since October 2020, he and his wife Krissy Mashinsky have sold 20 million CEL platform tokens.

Although Mashinsky requested a public debate with Cory Klippsten, the latter declined, similar to Larry Cermak's previous comments on Celsius participating in liquidity mining during the DeFi craze:

Celsius is one of the most opaque companies I've ever seen. You should publicly display deposits, loans, and inventory. If you don't, I won't believe in lending on the platform.

The essence of blockchain emphasizes transparency, Mashinsky can disclose the flow of funds publicly, so why the need for debate.