Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, has been permanently banned from trading in markets regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The ban follows a federal court’s approval of a consent order that resolves the CFTC’s enforcement case against him, originally filed in 2023.
The order, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, permanently bars Mashinsky from participating in CFTC regulated markets, registering with the agency, or violating anti fraud provisions under the Commodity Exchange Act and related CFTC regulations.
Fallout From Celsius Collapse
The CFTC filed its lawsuit against Mashinsky and Celsius in July 2023, accusing the company of operating a digital asset platform that pooled customer cryptocurrencies to generate returns.
Customers were promised weekly interest payments or rewards based on these activities.
According to regulators, Mashinsky and Celsius misled hundreds of thousands of customers between 2018 and June 2022 by making false or misleading claims about the platform’s safety, profitability, and regulatory compliance.
The complaint alleged that Mashinsky aggressively promoted Celsius through videos, livestreams, blog posts, social media, and the company’s website. In those public statements, he presented Celsius as a secure alternative to traditional banking while promoting high yield returns for depositors.
However, the CFTC argued that Celsius relied on increasingly risky investment strategies to sustain those promised returns.
These strategies allegedly included millions of dollars in unsecured loans and participation in high risk decentralized finance agreements outside traditional regulatory oversight.
While customers were repeatedly assured that their assets were safe and generating rewards, regulators claim the company was already suffering major losses.
The CFTC also stated that customer funds were far less secure than Celsius had claimed. Eventually, the company collapsed and filed for bankruptcy after handling roughly $20 billion in customer assets during its operations.
In July 2023, the court approved a separate consent order imposing a permanent injunction against Celsius itself, leaving Mashinsky as the final remaining defendant in the regulator’s civil case.
Criminal Case and Sentencing
The CFTC’s civil action ran separately from a related criminal case brought by federal prosecutors in New York on July 11, 2023.
That case focused on the same alleged misconduct involving Mashinsky’s leadership at Celsius.
Mashinsky later pleaded guilty on December 3, 2024, to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud.
On May 8, 2025, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The court also imposed a $50,000 fine and ordered him to forfeit $48.39 million tied to his role in the commodities and securities fraud committed through Celsius.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
