Ten months after its foray into the cryptocurrency sector, the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) has already written off its approximately $200 million investment in Celsius Network. The institution recognizes that his arrival was “too early in this very volatile sector”.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
“For us, it is clear, when we look at all this, we arrived too soon in a sector which was in transition”, recognized the president and chief executive officer of the Quebec woolen sock, Charles Émond, Wednesday, at the occasion of the presentation of the half-yearly results.
By offering a kind of mea culpa, he indicated that the institution was evaluating its “legal options”, without going into details, since Celsius Network has placed itself under the protection of bankruptcy law in the United States. .
Faced with a liquidity crisis, the American cryptobank froze withdrawals from its 1.7 million depositors on June 12. She appealed the bankruptcy law last week, which means depositors could lose big. When it filed for bankruptcy, there was a $1.9 billion hole in its finances, according to documents presented in New York courts.
Companies like Celsius pool deposits of cryptocurrencies – like bitcoin – to then offer loans and interest that exceed 10%. These platforms are not regulated and depositors’ assets are not protected.