Alex Mashinsky Wants To Resurrect Failed Crypto Lender Celsius As A Custodian

The downturn triggered by the bankrupt major crypto lender Celsius (CEL) continues to roll over numerous crypto businesses worldwide, but CEO Alex Mashinsky reportedly aims to revive the business as a custodian.

At a meeting with employees held earlier this month, Mashinsky outlined a plan to rebuild Celsius with a focus on custody services. The CEO and Oren Blonstein, another Celsius executive, said they hoped to encourage prospective customers to store their cryptocurrencies with them, The New York Times reported.

The project, code-named Kelvin after the unit of temperature, has triggered skeptical questions from the employees who were present at the meeting. 

In response to this, Mashinsky compared the process to rebuild the firm to corporate turnarounds by some of the globe’s most famous brands, including beverage producer Pepsi which went bankrupt in 1923 and 1931.

“Does it make the Pepsi taste less good?” the CEO asked his employees. “Delta filed for bankruptcy. Do you not fly Delta because they filed for bankruptcy?”

Mashinsky told his employees that Celsius was working with a legal entity which represents the company’s creditors, a group known as the Committee of Unsecured Creditors, to develop a plan to relaunch operations.

An official announcement is yet to be made. A Celsius spokeswoman said the business regularly held internal meetings with the aim to “prepare for all scenarios.”

“Our employees are central to our efforts,” she said in a statement. “We will continue to rely on them to assist in preparing whatever requirements would be necessary to execute the final recovery plan as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, the company’s s so-called Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing on July 14 has shown a deficit of close to $1.2bn for the troubled crypto lender.

The price of native token CEL has spiked 18% in the last 24 hours.