| The 2022 crypto rout sparked a series of high-profile company collapses, resulting in bankruptcies that left billions of dollars in investor assets stuck in limbo. Now some of those firms are preparing to emerge out the other side with a brand new offering, even as others opt to cut their losses and liquidate. Two of the biggest platforms that went bust — crypto lender Celsius and trading platform FTX — are plotting their next moves in a way that could see them restart services. Celsius, which paused customer withdrawals almost a year ago, is the furthest along in the process thanks to a successful auction of its estate last week. FTX 2.0 on the other hand remains only an idea in its earliest stages, making Celsius our best chance at understanding what a contemporary crypto company might look like after it's been brought back from the dead. The winning bidder to manage Celsius' assets as a brand-new business was Fahrenheit, a group backed by crypto hedge fund Arrington Capital. Celsius' estate includes around $500 million in "liquid" cryptocurrency, some decentralized finance tokens, a crypto mining business and a portfolio of loans, venture capital and private equity investments — so a sizeable haul. But look a little deeper at the bid's terms and Fahrenheit's plan is dependent on a lot of uncertainties if it's to make users whole. To start with, that $500 million in liquid crypto will be used to help establish the new company with a $35 million annual management fee for Fahrenheit and then pay off a few different types of claims, among other things. Creditors will get a pro rata portion of whatever is left — likely a drop in the ocean compared to the actual size of what they're owed — as well as equity in the new company. But in return, they have to give up their debt claim entirely. For Celsius 2.0 to earn some revenue, Fahrenheit's terms included seeking approval for new lending products and services, as well as a return to operation for Celsius' mining units. It also wants to publicly list the new company's equity on a stock exchange, and maybe even make some cash back for creditors through litigation by suing Celsius' former CEO Alex Mashinsky along with other executives. Unfortunately for creditors, this means that they'll have to once again place their faith in the very thing that burned them. Not only that, but they'll also have to hope that others will ignore the company's past history and do the same in order for the business to grow. Centralized crypto lending earned a bad name in 2022 after Celsius, BlockFi, Genesis Global Capital and others all went bust. It's a difficult reputation to overcome, but it's one that creditors have to hope can be turned around if their equity in Celsius' next incarnation is to be worth anything close to their original investments. | 
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