Celsius Adds Over 428K stETH to its Extended Lido Withdrawal Queue
Celsius, a bankrupt crypto lending firm, is eagerly awaiting the return of the $1,824 in Ether staked from liquid betting platform Lido, which recently made withdrawals possible. Celsius has started withdrawing Lido Staked ETH (stETH) from the protocol, requesting 428,084 steTH in batches of 1,000 units.
This deposit is currently valued at approximately $784.7 million. This action follows a similar transaction from stETH on May 15, which was made in preparation for the withdrawal. Celsius will receive the equivalent amount in Ethereum when the withdrawal process is complete, while Lido will burn stETH tokens.
According to Dune Analytics transaction data, the total number 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 accounting for the bulk. According to Dune, 629 ETH has been processed so far.
On May 16, Lido assured participants that its ETH reserves were sufficient to meet withdrawal requests. However, an increase in the number of Ether withdrawal requests from Lido can impact the network’s withdrawal queue, which is dynamic. With nearly 30% market share, Lido’s queue may experience significant delays if withdrawal requests spike, causing Celsius to wait for his ETH.
According to Tom Wan, a research analyst at 21Shares, if unstaking requests exceed 10%, it can cause more validators to drop out, resulting in longer withdrawal queues. The proceeds from the staked Ether could help Celsius in his restructuring efforts or pay some of his $4.7 billion debt to creditors.
At the end of February, Celsius converted 22,962 Bitcoin bundles (WBTC) into Bitcoins at $27,077 per BTC. This transaction is worth approximately $540 million.
