Celsius, the bankrupt crypto lending firm, is eager to retrieve its staked Ether (ETH) stash from liquid staking platform Lido. It has initiated the process of withdrawing its Lido Staked ETH (stETH) from the protocol. It has requested the withdrawal of 428,084 stETH in batches of 1,000. The stash is valued at approximately $784.7 million at current prices.
Previous Transaction
This move follows a transaction of a similar amount of stETH on May 15, which was in preparation for withdrawal. Once the withdrawal process is complete, Celsius will receive the equivalent in Ether, and the stETH tokens will be burnt by Lido.
Withdrawal Queue
According to Dune Analytics, the cumulative amount of stETH in the withdrawal queue is 442,000 from 141 requests. It is valued at around $808 million, though Celsius is responsible for the majority of it. The total amount already processed is 629 ETH, according to Dune.
Possible Impacts
Larger numbers of Ether withdrawal requests from Lido can have an impact on the network withdrawal queue, which is a dynamic process. Lido is the largest staking provider, with a market share of almost 30%, so Celsius could face a longer wait to get its ETH back if withdrawal requests increase. If unstaking requests exceed 10%, it could cause a larger number of validator exits and potentially lead to longer queues for withdrawals. The capital may be used as part of Celsius restructuring efforts or to partly repay some of its $4.7 billion debts to creditors.
In late February, the crypto lender converted 22,962 wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) into Bitcoin (BTC) in a transaction valued at approximately $540 million at the time.