What happened

Among the various sagas playing out in the cryptocurrency sector right now is that of embattled crypto lender Celsius (CEL). With bankruptcy proceedings underway, this centralized crypto company is looking for ways to appease investors, while also attempting to assuage investors with a restructuring plan. Today, investors don't seem to be buying what Celsius is selling, with the token down 2% over the past 24 hours, as of 2 p.m. ET. Earlier today, this token had dropped as much as 13% over a 24-hour period.

Today's token-specific news is a formal motion put forward by the company to sell some of its stablecoin holdings to pay for ongoing operational expenses. Most notably, the stablecoin funds Celsius is looking to sell appear to be held primarily by retail investors, stoking the ire of the crypto community today.

So what

For investors looking at Celsius as a potential speculative bet, there are some previous rallies to look to as reasons to consider this token on dips. Various short squeezes alongside spurts of optimistic sentiment in the market have taken Celsius' token on some parabolic near-term moves. That said, for the most part, Celsius' story doesn't look very promising right now. 

Indeed, the company is scrambling to find a way to continue operations, restructure, and pay legal fees (which appear likely to continue stacking up). This is a crypto project some institutional investors have completely written off, for good reason.

Now what

While some of the widespread contagion fears attributed to Celsius' demise appear to have been exaggerated, it's clear this crypto project is running out of time to survive. It's unclear if a restructuring plan will be approved by the courts and debtors, many of whom are retail investors who stand to lose all, or at least the majority, of their holdings regardless of the outcome.

In a sector that already carries inherently high levels of risk, amplifying this risk via investing in a defunct crypto lending project seems to me to be far too risky a proposition to consider, ever. With more regulatory scrutiny coming from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), projects like Celsius are the kind of targets investors may want to step away from right now.