The first bills from the army of lawyers and advisers working on the bankruptcy of crypto lender Celsius Network LLC are in and already adding up to millions of dollars, Bloomberg News reported. Alvarez & Marsal North America LLC, a financial adviser for the debtors, has asked to be paid about 80% of a near-$3 million bill for work involving 20 staffers over July 14 to Aug. 31, according to a filing Tuesday. In another filing, fees for a court-appointed examiner and her counsel were estimated at $3 million to $5 million, excluding additional expected costs from a financial adviser the examiner plans to retain. Celsius, once one of crypto’s most prominent lenders, suspended customer withdrawals in June and sought bankruptcy protection the following month. The market value of Celsius’s holdings has declined about $12.3 billion since the end of March to $1.75 billion, and the large majority will likely be deemed property of the bankruptcy estate, making customers the exchange’s only unsecured creditors, according to Negisa Balluku, a litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Separately, Celsius said in a tweet that it’s filed a motion to set a deadline for customers to submit proofs of claim -- the so-called bar date -- and that the matter is due to be heard in court on Nov. 1.
