Celsius CEL

What the record shows

CEL was the token native to the Celsius platform, according to the bankruptcy court, and Celsius paused all trading on the platform in June 2022 [1]. On July 13, 2022 Celsius Network LLC and some of its affiliates filed for chapter 11 in New York [2].

The CFTC, the FTC, and the SEC each sued Celsius companies on July 13, 2023 [3] [4] [5]. The court in the CFTC case entered a consent order against Celsius Network LLC on July 17, 2023 [3]. On August 16, 2023 the court entered an order that the FTC and nine Celsius companies agreed to [4]. The SEC’s final judgment against Celsius Network Limited, also by consent, was entered on November 1, 2023 [5].

The SEC also charged the founder, and its claims against him are allegations [6] [5]. In September 2023 the court stayed the SEC case until the criminal case was over [5]. In 2026 the founder agreed to orders in the FTC case in April and in the CFTC case in June [3] [4].

In the criminal case the founder pleaded guilty on December 3, 2024 to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud [7]. The DOJ says one of the two schemes was manipulating the price of CEL while he sold his own [7]. On May 8, 2025 he was sentenced to 12 years [8].

The company’s chief revenue officer also pleaded guilty to manipulating the price of CEL, according to the DOJ [8]. In May 2026 the founder filed a motion to vacate his sentence, and the docket shows no ruling on it [9].

What the chain shows

Etherscan’s page for the CEL contract names the token Celsius (CEL), an ERC-20 token with 4 decimals [10]. The page shows no migration notice. It still shows market data for CEL, and this page repeats none of it.

Claims and distributions

The chapter 11 case is No. 22-10964 in the bankruptcy court in New York [2]. The court confirmed the plan on November 9, 2023, and the plan took effect on January 31, 2024 [2]. The claims agent’s site says the second distribution is made only in bitcoin or cash [2].

The plan also settled how claims for CEL are valued [1]. CEL Token Deposit Claims, other than custody claims, are valued at $0.25 per token, except as the plan provides otherwise [1]. Claims for CEL on the plan’s schedule of equitably subordinated claims get no distribution, and what the opinion calls Other CEL Token Claims go to Class 15, which gets none either [1]. The court approved that settlement when it confirmed the plan, and it gave its reasons in an opinion dated November 9, 2023 [1].

Tax treatment

The court record does not create a loss. A loss needs a closed transaction. The IRS Chief Counsel memo on crypto that has crashed says a token that still trades on an exchange is not worthless, and a holder who still controls it has not abandoned it [11]. The memo reads a worthlessness loss for an individual as a miscellaneous itemized deduction, and the statute now allows none of those for any tax year after 2017, with no end date [13].

A sale is different. The IRS FAQ says a sale of virtual currency for real currency is a capital gain or loss, reported on Form 8949 and summarized on Schedule D [12]. This site has not checked against a primary source how a plan distribution is taxed. The records a cost basis rests on are the subject of the Celsius cost-basis guide.

What a holder can do

The recover-or-write-off table further down lists three things a holder can do with what is left. None of them is a recommendation. Each one produces a different receipt, and the IRS reads the receipt.