CoinMarketCap News, July 7: Celsius Gets $440M of Collateral Back. What Happens Next?

According to new figures from Glassnode, those who have staked Ether are massively in the red. Almost 13 million ETH — that's 10.9% of the circulating supply — has now flowed into the deposit contract. Of this, 8 million ETH was deposited before the world's second-largest cryptocurrency hit an all-time high back in November 2021. Ether hit a record price of $4,891 back then — and fast forward to now, this cryptocurrency's value has plunged by more than 75%. Here's an especially sobering figure: the dollar value of the staked ETH peaked at $39.7 billion in November, and has now plunged by more than $25 billion.

An end could soon be in sight for Celsius Network customers who have been unable to access their crypto for four weeks. On-chain data shows that the embattled crypto lender has now fully repaid a loan to Maker Protocol. This is significant because it means Celsius can now reclaim over $440 million worth of collateral in the form of Wrapped Bitcoin. There hasn't been much in the way of an update from Celsius Network in recent days — with executives warning it will take time to complete a restructuring. But the activity we're seeing in on-chain data does confirm that work has been taking place behind the scenes to get on a firmer financial footing.

Boris Johnson has resigned as Prime Minister, in a week where dozens of ministers in his government quit following a slew of scandals. But according to the Bank of England's deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe, the U.K. is still on track to establish a regulatory system for stablecoins. Speaking at the Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance’s annual conference, Sir Jon admitted that "recent events" have affected these plans. However, he was quoted as saying that legislation will be introduced before Parliament takes a summer break.

Sam Bankman-Fried believes we may have reached the darkest depths of the crypto winter. In an interview with Reuters, he argued that prices have stabilized — but he conceded that wider macroeconomic conditions could cause further falls. The FTX CEO also revealed that his company has a "few billion" available to support struggling companies across the sector. SBF said his main motivation with bailouts was to help protect customer assets, and stop a dreaded crypto contagion, where one company's collapse has ramifications for others. Bankman-Fried's net worth is believed to have taken a substantial hit as a result of the bear market.