Celsius Adds Over 428K stETH to Lido’s Lengthening Withdrawal Queue

Celsius, a bankrupt crypto lending firm, eagerly awaits the return of $1,824 in staked Ether from the liquid staking platform Lido, which recently enabled withdrawals. Celsius has begun withdrawing its Lido Staked ETH (stETH) from the protocol, requesting 428,084 stETH in 1,000-unit batches.

This stash is currently worth approximately $784.7 million. This action follows a similar transaction of stETH on May 15, which was carried out in preparation for withdrawal. Celsius will receive the equivalent amount in Ethereum when the withdrawal process is complete, while Lido will burn the stETH tokens.

According to Dune Analytics transaction data, the total amount of stETH in the withdrawal queue is 442,000, originating from 141 separate withdrawal requests. This total value is estimated at around $808 million, with Celsius contributing most of it. According to Dune, 629 ETH has been processed thus far.

On May 16, Lido assured participants it had enough ETH reserves to meet withdrawal requests. However, an increasing number of Ether withdrawal requests from Lido may have an impact on the network withdrawal queue, which is dynamic. With a nearly 30% market share, Lido’s queue may experience significant delays if withdrawal requests surge, causing Celsius to wait for its ETH.

According to Tom Wan, a research analyst at 21Shares, if unstaking requests exceed 10%, it may result in more validator exits, resulting in longer withdrawal queues. The proceeds from the staked Ether could help Celsius with its restructuring efforts or partially repay its $4.7 billion in debts to creditors.

In late February, Celsius converted 22,962 wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) into Bitcoin for $27,077 per BTC. This transaction was worth approximately $540 million.