Creditors of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius have amended their lawsuit to include Wintermute, alleging that the firm assisted executives of the lending firm by facilitating wash trading and fraudulently manipulating trading volumes. Wintermute Trading Ltd has been added as a new defendant in the ongoing class action lawsuit against Celsius Network. The creditors claim that between March 2021 and June 2022, Wintermute helped Celsius inflate trading volumes by engaging in wash trading. The alleged scheme was discovered through internal conversations between executives. Celsius is accused of not having proper controls in place to prevent wash trading. Before its bankruptcy filing, Celsius allegedly transferred $160 million of wrapped bitcoin to third-party wallets, some of which were controlled by Wintermute. Celsius also moved around $20 million worth of wrapped Ethereum to a Wintermute-controlled wallet. In September 2022, Wintermute suffered a hacking breach and lost around $160 million. Meanwhile, Celsius assets have been acquired by crypto consortium Fahrenheit after a successful bid. The acquisition includes staked cryptocurrencies, the loan portfolio, mining units, and alternative investments made by Celsius.
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