9-5-2025 – Alex Mashinsky, the embattled founder of the cryptocurrency platform Celsius, has been handed a 12-year prison sentence following a landmark fraud case that sent shockwaves through the digital asset industry.
In a dramatic conclusion to one of the most significant cryptocurrency fraud cases to date, the court ordered Mashinsky to serve concurrent sentences of 120 and 144 months behind bars. The ruling also compelled him to surrender $48 million in ill-gotten gains, along with several properties acquired during his tenure at the helm of Celsius.
The severity of Mashinsky’s crimes became apparent when, in December 2024, he acknowledged his role as the orchestrator of criminal activities at Celsius that wreaked havoc on investors’ portfolios. His admission revealed staggering losses exceeding $550 million, whilst he personally amassed a fortune of more than $48 million through fraudulent means.
The sentence falls short of the prosecution’s initial push for a two-decade imprisonment term, which they had advocated in their April 28 memorandum to the court. Their recommendation stemmed from the catastrophic impact of Mashinsky’s actions on Celsius customers, who found themselves cut off from approximately $4.7 billion in cryptocurrency assets after the platform halted withdrawals in June 2022.
