Canadian Pension Fund CDPQ Another Victim Of Celsius’ Bankruptcy
- Canadian pension fund CDPQ (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) has officially written off its investment in Celsius, which amounted to around $200 million.
- The pensio fund invested a staggering amount in the crypto lender in October 2021 calling it “the world’s leading crypto lender.”
The bankruptcy of the crypto lending firm Celsius (CEL) has effected multiple firms which tried to jump on the booming crypto bandwagon. One such firm is a Canadian pension fund CDPQ or Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec which ranks among the biggest pension managers in Canada.
Charles Edmond, CEO of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) pointed out on Wednesday that there were challenges in regards to crypto assets, but perhaps “we underestimated those challenges.”
It is a known fact that the crypto market is not regulated and is one of the most volatile asset class there is. This is what burned the investment of around $200 million from the fund down to ashes. According to a recent press release, the firm has witness losses worth $26 billion the first half of the year, i.e., a return of -7.9%, which confirms that the investment in Celsius was not the right decision for the firm.
Interestingly, CDPQ announced their investment in Celsius back in October 2021 when the market worth almost $3 trillion and there was a bullish sentiment among investors as Bitcoin topped at $69,000. However, so far, 2022 has not been a great year for the crypto market as multiple firms have been recovering from the losses suffered due to the collapse of Terra blockchain and Celsius crypto lending firm.
At the time of investing, in Octobe 2021, Alexandre Synnett, the pension manager’s chief technology officer, called Celsius “the world’s leading crypto lender.” Now, the pension fund manager has written off its investmenet in Celsius, confiming a decline in profits as well.
“For us, it is clear, when we look at all this, we arrived too soon in a sector which was in transition,”
recognized the president and chief executive officer of the Quebec woolen sock, Charles Émond, Wednesday, at the occasion of the presentation of the half-yearly results.
CDPQ acknowledged its fault and stated that it is evaluating its “legal options”, but did not go much into details of the same. However, it is clear that the crypto lender’s bankruptcy has affected the pension in an expected manner.
However, contrary to the pension fund’s views, Ripple is interested in purchasing the assets of Celsius as it filed for presence in the court hearing despite not having its name among the list of creditors of the crypto lender.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
