Following the Money
Following the Money
An on-chain audit of known Celsius Network wallets finds $2.8 billion Ether, ~65% of $4.3 billion claimed under management
Over the past several months, Dirty Bubble Media has examined hundreds of wallets following transfers to and from the crypto lending platform Celsius Network. Thanks to Etherscan, we have managed to annotate these wallets as they were identified, which enabled us to monitor asset flows over time.
Today, we will share some of these wallet addresses and their activity. Our analysis was able to find approximately $2.8 billion Ether across a variety of wallets, DeFi protocols, and Eth2 validator staking. Based on data released by a customer, Celsius currently has ~1.26 million Ether under management ($4.3 billion), meaning our analysis captured ~65% of their total Ether.
0x8aceab: The Core DeFi wallet ($1.34 billion)
This wallet is one of Celsius’ most active wallets in DeFi, shuttling funds between the Aave and Compound protocols. We previously described the activity of this wallet in some detail. Typically, 0x8aceab is used to deposit Ether on Compound and Aave, then borrowing stablecoins against those deposits.
As of the time of writing this article, 0x8aceab has approximately $1.34 billion in Ether deposited to Aave and Compound. This wallet also holds $486 million wrapped Bitcoin, equal to about 10% of Celsius’ total Bitcoin holdings. Against these deposits, Celsius has borrowed $867 million in USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins. $1.16 billion of the Ether is deposited to Aave:
With the remaining $188 million deposited to Compound:
Eth2 validator deposits ($690 million + $96 million wallet balance)
Recently, Celsius Network has begun shifting large balances of Ether to the Eth2 Deposit Contract. This contract, currently holding over $38 billion worth of Ether, is the deposit contract to become a validator when Ethereum switches from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.
Over the last month, Celsius has sent some $690 million in Ether to the Eth2 deposit contract via two wallets. This wallet used the Figment Eth2 Depositor contract to send the funds, depositing a total of 112,352 Eth ($382 million) over the last month.
A second wallet has transferred 90,368 Eth directly to the Eth2 Deposit contract ($307 million). This wallet received an additional transfer of 28,325 Ether ($96 million) two days ago; these funds are still sitting in the wallet as of today:
In total, the transfers and balance of these two wallets amounts to ~$786 million.
Transfers to stEth contract ($246 million)
While Celsius’ largest DeFi deposits appear to be with Compound and Aave, there are a number of other protocols they interact with. One of the largest appears to be the Lido DAO, which Celsius has sent some 72,498 Ether ($246 million) in return for Lido’s “Liquid staked Ether” (stETH)":
Celsius then swapped stETH into “bETH,” transferring it to the Terra blockchain. Ah the wonders of DeFi…
Recent transfers to Genesis and Bitfinex ($190 million)
Over the last 48 hours, a core Celsius wallet made two large transfers of Ether to institutional clients. 45,000 Eth ($156 million) was sent via intermediate wallets to the Genesis OTC trading wallet. Another 10,000 Eth ($34 million) was transferred to Bitfinex:
Celsius Wallet 5 ($84 million)
Celsius Wallet 5 is one of the most active wallets in the Celsius Network, acting as a hub between dozens of other Celsius wallets. Currently, it holds $84 million in Ethereum:
CelsiusX Reserve Vault ($70.5 million)
Celsius has (paradoxically) decided to start its own DeFi protocol, CelsiusX. Celsius currently has $70.5 million worth of wrapped Ether, transferred from several wallets, sitting in the CelsiusX reserve vault.
Convex ($60 million)
Another large DeFi exposure for Celsius is the Convex protocol, where it has staked $59.9 million Ether and aiETH:
