TLDR
- Former Celsius CEO Mashinsky sentenced to 12 years for crypto fraud.
- He misled investors about Celsius’s financial health and risks.
- Used customer funds to pump CEL token price, made $48M personally.
- Celsius collapsed in 2022, locking $4.7B in user funds, $7B in total losses.
- Mashinsky must forfeit $48.3M, pay a fine, and face civil charges.
Alexander Mashinsky, the former Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Celsius Network LLC has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison following a conviction for securities fraud and commodities fraud. The sentence was issued by Judge John G. Koeltl of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The judgment followed Mashinsky’s guilty plea on December 3, 2024, to one count each of securities and commodities fraud as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
EX Celsius CEO was finally sentenced.
12 years for crypto fraud. Did he get enough time behind bars?
— megbzk (@megbzk) May 8, 2025
The court imposed a 144-month sentence and a concurrent 120-month sentence. In addition to the prison term, Mashinsky was ordered to forfeit $48.3 million and pay a $50,000 fine. He will also serve three years of supervised release. The sentencing resolves a long-running investigation into Mashinsky’s role in Celsius Network’s collapse and related market manipulation activities.
Misrepresentation of Celsius’s Financial Stability
Celsius Network operated as a cryptocurrency lending platform that promised users high returns on digital asset deposits. Under Mashinsky’s leadership, the company aggressively promoted itself as a safer alternative to traditional banking. However, prosecutors presented evidence that Mashinsky knowingly misled investors regarding the company’s financial health and ability to manage risk.
Despite public claims of transparency and security, Celsius engaged in practices contradicting its marketing. These included making uncollateralized loans and leveraging customer assets for risky investments. As Celsius’s asset base expanded to approximately $25 billion by late 2021, internal communications and testimony revealed a consistent pattern of misinformation intended to retain user deposits and project financial stability.
Manipulation of CEL Token and Insider Profits
Authorities also charged Mashinsky with orchestrating a scheme to manipulate the price of Celsius’s native token, CEL. Over several years, the company artificially spent hundreds of millions to inflate CEL’s market price. In some cases, Celsius used customer funds to support these purchases without informing its clients. According to court filings, the token’s inflated value allowed Mashinsky to generate approximately $48 million through personal sales while publicly denying that he was offloading any holdings.
Internal messages cited in the proceedings revealed that Celsius executives acknowledged the artificial nature of CEL’s price. One such message from former Chief Revenue Officer Roni Cohen-Pavon described the token’s valuation as “fake” and reliant on substantial market intervention.
Company Collapse and Customer Losses
Celsius suspended withdrawals on June 12, 2022, amid mounting liquidity issues, and filed for bankruptcy one month later. At the time of the halt, approximately 600,000 customers had over $4.7 billion in assets locked on the platform. Estimates by federal prosecutors place total customer losses closer to $7 billion based on market values at the time of the company’s collapse.
Mashinsky’s arrest in July 2023 followed a multi-count indictment, which was ultimately resolved through a plea deal. Although the maximum sentence under the agreement was 30 years, prosecutors recommended a 20-year term. The final sentence of 12 years balanced the prosecution’s recommendation and the defense’s request for leniency.
The Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force prosecuted the case, with support from the FBI, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, each of which initiated parallel civil proceedings.
