Sam Bankman-Fried eyeing a bid for Celsius assets sends CEL Token to a 16% high

Bankrupt crypto lender, Celsius' native token CEL soared 16% on Wednesday morning as reports suggested that crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried could potentially buy its assets.

Prior to the reports, the token was trending on a 24-hour low and was trading around $1.52 at press time. However, ever since the speculations of Bankman-Fried buying its assets surfaced, the Cel token has incrementally jumped.

Recent developments

Earlier on Tuesday morning, Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of Celsius Network resigned from his position. "I elected to resign my post as CEO of Celsius Network today. Nevertheless, 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 a press release.

Following the announcement, CEL token fell 8% lower.

Since the collapse of stablecoin TerraUSD, firms in the crypto sector, are facing severe liquidity crisis, especially those with exposure to the token. Companies closely associated with Three Arrows Capital (3AC) — found themselves on the brink of bankruptcy.

On July 14, the firm filed for bankruptcy proceedings after freezing its withdrawals in June. Celsius's collapse forced greater scrutiny onto other crypto firms that dealt with lending. In the wake of its collapse, two other firms, namely Voyager and Vauld, also filed for bankruptcy due to staggering market conditions.

However, during this market downturn, crypto billionaire, Sam Bankman-Fried has emerged as the lender of last resort in the crypto world.

The crypto billionaire has been bailing out the firms from bankruptcy

On Monday, crypto exchange FTX secured the winning bid for the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital. According to a statement by Voyager Digital, the bid was valued at approximately $1.42 billion.

In July, FTX also provided the struggling lending firm BlockFi with a $250 million. FTX and its sister company have been investing in many distressed crypto firms.

The crypto industry experts have drawn parallels of crypto billionaire, Sam Bankman Fried to J.P. Morgan, the banker who gained prominence by saving many significant New York banks in 1907 and prevented the stock market from crashing, or Warren Buffett, as the billionaire's Berkshire Hathaway bought $5 billion of preferred stock in Goldman Sachs and saved the company during the 2008 financial crisis.

Earlier reports emerged that the FTX was in discussions with investors to raise $1 billion fresh capital in the next funding round at a valuation of $32 billion and the additional funds would be used to sign financial acquisitions during the bear market.

(This story is updated to correct factual error.)