Celsius Crypto Platform Pauses Withdrawals

Celsius addressed their community with a memo late at night on June 12th, 2022 announcing the platform's suspension of withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts.

The memo explains the company's decision and is rationalized as an action that is necessary to “put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations.”

The clause to pause withdrawals was included in the platform’s Terms of Use and was activated in order to stabilize liquidity while Celsius takes the necessary steps to preserve and protect all assets. Users will continue to earn rewards during the pause as the platform is committed to delivering its promises to its customers.

Their singular focus is currently to protect and preserve assets in order to meet the obligations of customers. This will be an attempt to stabilize liquidity in order to restore withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts as soon as possible. 

Moments before the pause of withdrawals, the CEO of Celsius addressed concerns in a Twitter thread regarding the ability to withdraw on their platform. At the time, withdrawals were not paused, however, the Twitter thread likely contributed to a "DeFi" bank run as liquidity became unstable very quickly afterward. These events subsequently forced the company to activate the specific clause that pauses withdrawals.