Ripple Labs wants to learn about, maybe buy assets of insolvent crypto lender Celsius

Ripple Labs, the San Francisco-based blockchain payments firm, is seeking to learn about and potentially acquire the assets of insolvent cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network. "We are interested in learning about Celsius and its assets, and whether any could be relevant to our business," a company spokesperson told Seeking Alpha via email. Despite a backdrop of a cyclical market downturn and mounting recession fears, Ripple "has continued to grow exponentially through a market reset and is actively looking for M&A opportunities to strategically scale the company," the spokesperson said. The potential transaction comes after formerly prominent Celsius halted customer withdrawals in mid-June due to a turbulent market conditions. It wasn't until mid-July when the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York as it faced mounting liquidity issues. Some of Celsius' assets consist of digital assets held in custody accounts, a bitcoin (BTC-USD) mining entity as well as the company's own CEL (CEL-USD) coin, Reuters reported, citing bankruptcy filings. Note XRP (XRP-USD) is a crypto issued and partly managed by Ripple Labs. The tokens are rising slightly by 2.8% to $0.38 at around 3:40 p.m. ET. In the beginning of July, Celsius Network slashed around 25% of its headcount.