A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has narrowed the Celsius Network bankruptcy litigation against Chainalysis, dismissing 15 claims while allowing one fiduciary-duty claim to move forward.
Judge Margaret Garnett issued the ruling on September 29. The surviving claim accuses Chainalysis of aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty tied to a disputed November 2020 asset verification. According to court filings, Celsius executive Timothy Cradle initially used Chainalysis's Reactor software to calculate assets under management of about $1.18 billion. The complaint alleges Celsius insiders later changed the methodology by adding the company's own CEL token holdings, pushing the figure to approximately $3.3 billion.
Celsius announced the figure as an outside asset verification on December 9, 2020, and a Chainalysis executive was quoted saying the company helped verify accuracy. The lawsuit claims Chainalysis approved the word "audit" five times before the release was published, and that the description was misleading. The court found the complaint sufficiently alleged that Chainalysis had knowledge and provided active help, not merely passive involvement.
Twelve claims were dismissed with prejudice, while three others can be amended by October 20. The Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium is pursuing the case on behalf of the Celsius estate. Chainalysis argued Celsius participated in the conduct and should be blocked from recovering damages, but the court said that issue cannot be resolved at this stage.
The ruling does not decide whether the allegations are true. It is one part of broader Celsius recovery efforts: the estate is separately pursuing roughly 6,360 BTC from BitMEX entities, valued near $495 million when filed. Celsius issued a third distribution of $220.6 million in August 2025, bringing reported recoveries to 64.9% of eligible claims. Former co-founders Shlomi Daniel Leon and Hanoch Goldstein agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle FTC claims, while former CEO Alex Mashinsky is serving a 12-year prison sentence.
Legal observers say the case could set a precedent on how far blockchain intelligence and data analytics firms are liable when their services are used by platforms that later collapse. The Celsius proceedings have generated more than $4.7 billion in claims.
