Blockchain expert rips crypto lender Celsius freezing accounts: ‘It’s unfortunate’
Celsius is pausing all withdrawals and transfers between accounts due to market volatility
During an interview on "Mornings with Maria" Friday, Ava Labs President John Wu discussed crypto-giant Celsius pausing all withdrawals and transfers between accounts due to the volatile markets, arguing the issues unfolding at Celsius are "the same villains that existed in traditional finance."
JOHN WU: On the Celsius issue, again, it's unfortunate and the number one hope and first and foremost is that individual customers can get their money out of that. But these issues that exist at Celsius, they're the same villains that existed in traditional finance. We saw a version of this with Robinhood when they about a year ago, and they didn't allow people to basically trade certain securities.
Ava Labs President John Wu discusses Celsius freezing accounts (Fox News)
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And then, you know, mismatching a duration is what they did. They're too much leverage, probably, hopefully no misappropriation of funds. But these are all, again, at the centralized onramp of a supposedly decentralized world. And that's unfortunate because it's ironic where the centralization is, where all the pain has happened in the promise of a decentralized, more open world and more transparency.