Canadian Pension Giant Caisse Writes Off $150M Bet on Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius

Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, the Canadian pension fund, has elected to write off its stake in Celsius Network, the bankrupt crypto lender, the fund confirmed on Wednesday. The Caisse invested US$150 million in Celsius in the fall of 2021, according to the article's account of the investment. At the time, Alexandre Synnett, executive vice-president and chief technology officer at Caisse, said that blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt several sectors of the traditional economy and that the fund intended to capture opportunities as digital assets grew in adoption, while working with partners toward a regulated industry.

The write-off was disclosed during a webcast discussing the fund's mid-year results. Caisse CEO Charles Emond said the fund "arrived too soon in a sector which was in transition." He added that Caisse conducted "extensive" due diligence before making the investment and that the fund is now exploring "legal options." Celsius is participating in an ongoing bankruptcy case with its creditors.

The write-off comes as Celsius's financial position deteriorated. The company disclosed earlier in the week that it was running low on money, and said it had received several proposals to inject cash and had won approval from a U.S. judge to sell bitcoin it mines. Caisse, which had net assets of just over $300 billion as of June 30 according to its latest results, is one of the larger institutional investors to publicly acknowledge losses tied to the Celsius collapse.