Tether, the issuer of stablecoins, has consented to pay $299.5 million to the bankruptcy estate of Celsius Network. This agreement addresses claims linked to the crypto lender’s collapse in 2022 and may spark renewed discussions regarding stablecoin liability.
The Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium (BRIC)—a partnership between asset management firm VanEck and GXD Labs, part of Atlas Grove Partners—disclosed the settlement on Tuesday. This resolution wraps up a lengthy dispute concerning Bitcoin (BTC) collateral transfers and liquidations that led to Celsius’s notable bankruptcy in July 2022.
BRIC was established in early 2023 to enhance creditor recoveries from bankrupt digital asset firms. In January 2024, it was appointed as the asset recovery manager and litigation administrator by the Celsius Debtors and the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee after the firm emerged from bankruptcy protection.
Celsius had previously initiated legal action against Tether, claiming that the stablecoin issuer wrongfully liquidated Bitcoin collateral securing loans denominated in USDt (USDT). The accusation states that Tether sold the collateral when Bitcoin’s price was nearly equivalent to Celsius’s debt, effectively eliminating Celsius’s position and contributing to its insolvency.
The recently announced $299.5 million settlement is merely a fraction of the approximately $4 billion in claims Celsius sought in court after initiating an adversary proceeding in August 2024. In July 2025, the bankruptcy court permitted the broader lawsuit against Tether to advance, though it is still uncertain how this latest recovery will impact those proceedings.
This settlement could indicate increasing legal risks for stablecoin issuers when they engage as counterparties in troubled crypto markets—a shift that might alter how regulators and courts perceive the responsibilities of entities like Tether in future insolvencies.
Up until now, issuers like Tether have primarily maintained that their function is solely transactional, facilitating the issuance and redemption of tokens rather than assuming liability for the ways those tokens are utilized across exchanges, lenders, or decentralized finance platforms.
Related: BlockFi bankruptcy administrator and DOJ agree to dismiss $35M lawsuit
Emerging from one of crypto’s darkest chapters
Celsius Network’s bankruptcy was part of a chain reaction of crypto failures in 2022 that plunged the industry into a drawn-out bear market and ultimately set the groundwork for FTX’s collapse that same year.
The consequences have been particularly harsh for former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, who agreed in June to forfeit any claims to assets from the company’s bankruptcy estate and was later sentenced to 12 years in prison for two felony convictions. As Cointelegraph reported, Mashinsky reported to prison in September.
Celsius was not alone. Significant crypto lenders BlockFi and Voyager Digital sought bankruptcy protection in 2022, followed by Genesis Global Capital the subsequent year.
According to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, customers withdrew almost $13 billion from crypto-asset platforms between May and November 2022, as trust in the sector evaporated.
“High-yield products were a key attraction for customers on some platforms,” the Chicago Fed noted, referring to interest rates exceeding 17% in certain instances—an enticing level that drew investors during the bull market but proved unfeasible once prices collapsed.
Related: Mashinsky’s 12-year sentence sets tone of enforcement in Trump era
