CFTC secures permanent trading ban against Celsius founder Mashinsky
The consent order caps a multi-agency crackdown that saw Mashinsky sentenced to 12 years in prison over $4.7 billion in customer losses
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has secured a consent order against Celsius founder and former CEO Alexander Mashinsky, permanently banning him from trading and registering with the agency.
The order, entered by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, resolves the CFTC’s 2023 enforcement case against Mashinsky. It also permanently bars him from further violations of certain anti-fraud provisions under the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC rules.
The ruling adds another layer of punishment to one of the most prominent failures from the 2022 crypto credit collapse. Mashinsky was sentenced in May 2025 to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud.
The CFTC sued Celsius and Mashinsky in July 2023, alleging that the company misled hundreds of thousands of customers about the safety and profitability of its crypto lending platform.
Celsius marketed itself as a safer alternative to a traditional bank for digital assets, while promising customers weekly rewards on deposited crypto.
The CFTC said those customer assets were pooled and deployed into increasingly risky strategies as Celsius tried to meet promised returns.
The regulator alleged that Celsius extended uncollateralized loans and entered risky DeFi arrangements while continuing to tell customers their assets were secure. Celsius eventually froze withdrawals in June 2022 and filed for bankruptcy the following month.
The CFTC said Celsius received funds totaling about $20 billion in value. The company settled with the agency in 2023 through a permanent injunction, leaving Mashinsky as the remaining defendant in the case.
Mashinsky also faced parallel criminal charges from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors said he misled customers about Celsius’s financial condition and manipulated the market for CEL, the company’s native token.
The SEC also sued Celsius and Mashinsky in 2023, alleging fraud, unregistered securities offerings and market manipulation tied to CEL. The FTC brought a separate consumer protection case against Celsius and its former executives.