Apollo Global Management ( NYSE: APO ) and top executives at Fortress Investment Group are each supporting competing groups looking to revive bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network ( CEL-USD ), the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing investor presentations and people familiar with the matter. Some $50M would be garnered from each proposal to help Celsius restart some of its operations as a publicly-traded firm primarily owned by its creditors who deposited their crypto with the company. Recall that Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York last July about a month after freezing all of its customer assets by pausing withdrawals from the network, as well as swaps and transfers on the platform, in the wake of plunging crypto prices. Bids and counterbids were said to have been submitted by the two groups in an auction that has taken hold for several weeks. In a court hearing Wednesday, Celsius's lawyer Ross Kwasteniet said there will soon be a winner, the newspaper pointed out. The Apollo and Fortress-backed bids aim to boost Celsius's crypto-mining business, in addition to its transaction verification business that uses customers' crypto holdings, the WSJ said . More on Celsius Network Celsius proposes sale of crypto trading platform to NovaWulf Digital Troubled crypto lender Celsius weighs token issuance to repay creditors - report Embattled crypto lender Celsius resumes withdrawals for certain custody accounts
