Celsius Network burned its CEL holdings, representing the majority of the token supply, on April 30.
Etherscan indicates the company burned 652.2 million CEL by sending it to a null address.
The burned amount represents 94% of the previous total supply, which amounted to 692.8 million CEL, valued at roughly $83.2 million at current market price.
The transaction reduced the remaining token supply to 40.6 million CEL, based on CoinGecko data — which has been updated to reflect the burned amount as of press time.
The transaction originated from a wallet controlled by Celsius, based on Arkham Intelligence data.
Arkham Intelligence data identified the sending address as belonging to Celsius Network.
Impact on market value
The transaction has implications for CEL’s market value. Token burns reduce supply, and the asset’s price could rise if it experiences continued demand.
Current market data shows a slight price increase. The value of CEL rose from 13.0 to 13.7 cents in the hours around the burn transaction, representing a 5% increase.
The change is less notable over the day, as both CEL and the crypto market have experienced more significant losses. The whole crypto market is down 4.4% over 24 hours, and the price of CEL was comparably down 5.3% over the same period.
Bankruptcy burn plans
In September 2023, Celsius submitted a filing in its bankruptcy case stating that it intended to burn all CEL tokens in its possession on the effective date of the reorganization plan.
Celsius noted that it could only burn tokens under its possession, adding that it could not “cancel” all CEL tokens or prevent trading on exchanges.
In context, Celsius raised the possibility of a token burn to argue that it needed to assign some or no value to the CEL token regardless of what it did with its holdings. It argued that $0.25 per token was an appropriate valuation for the asset.
In January, Celsius announced plans to distribute $3 billion in crypto to creditors. The company did not explicitly describe a burn in its public announcement on the effective date.
Celsius did not respond to CryptoSlate’s request for comment.
