According to a statement issued by the business on Tuesday, Alex Mashinsky, the chief executive officer of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network LLC, which has filed for bankruptcy, has resigned from his position.
Chris Ferraro, the organization’s CFO, was appointed interim CEO and chief restructuring officer with immediate effect.
“I will continue to maintain my focus on working to help the community unite behind a plan that will provide the best outcome for all creditors – which is what I have been doing since the company filed for bankruptcy,” Mashinsky said in the statement.
The resignation of Mashinsky had been requested by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, a collection of former Celsius clients who were tasked with advocating on behalf of other clients throughout the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. In a declaration submitted to bankruptcy court on Tuesday, the Committee also stated that they might sue Mashinsky for any damages they think he owes them personally.
The platform’s native token, CEL, initially dropped 7.5% in response to the news, but it quickly recovered most of that loss. CoinMarketCap reports that it was trading 0.1% down at US$1.50.
After freezing all transactions on its platform in June, Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. Celsius was one of many cryptocurrency companies affected by the contagion brought on by the multibillion-dollar failure of the algorithmic stablecoin Terra-LUNA.
According to leaked audio from a company meeting earlier this month, Mashinsky and fellow CEO Oren Blonstein reportedly stated they were considering rebuilding the company as a bitcoin custody business.
