Jan 4 Reuters A U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled on Wednesday that Celsius Network owns most of the cryptocurrency that customers deposited into its online platform, meaning most Celsius customers will be last in line for repayment in the crypto lender39;s bankruptcy.

The ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in New York affects approximately 600,000 accounts that held assets valued at 4.2 billion when Celsius filed for bankruptcy in July. The company does not have enough funds to fully repay those deposits, Glenn wrote.

The ruling means that most Celsius customers will be lower priority than customers who held noninterest bearing accounts and other secured creditors. It was unclear whether Celsius has significant secured debt.

The ruling also prevents infighting for higher priority among customers with interestbearing accounts, avoiding a situation in which some of those customers are repaid 100 of their deposits while similarlysituated customers are able to recover only a small percentage of their deposits, according to Glenn. Celsius39; terms of service made clear that the crypto lender took ownership of customer deposits into its interestbearing Earn accounts, according to Glenn. That means that Earn customers will be treated as unsecured creditors in Celsius39; bankruptcy, and they will be last in line for repayment after Celsius repays higherpriority debts.

Twelve U.S. states and the District of Columbia had objected to Celsius39; bid to claim the digital…