Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky to Plead Guilty to Celsius Fraud Charges

Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022, one month after halting all customer withdrawals. In July 2023, Mashinsky was hit with charges over an alleged $40 million in fraudulent gains at the expense of Celsius customers. The popular crypto firm allowed users to take out loans using their digital coins and tokens as collateral, and it claimed to manage over $25 billion in assets at its peak.

But it all came tumbling down—with numerous other crypto companies—following the collapse of crypto mega project Terra in 2022 and the brutal crypto winter that followed. After Celsius went bust and filed for bankruptcy, regulators and law enforcement alleged that Mashinsky and his company lied to customers about how safe the platform was, as well as selling unregistered securities.

Mashinsky and co-defendants “falsely touted Celsius as a safe alternative to banking—even though it was anything but,” the Federal Trade Commission alleged last year. And the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that Mashinsky conned the public about how well his company was doing “near its inception,” according to an indictment.