The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has resolved its action against Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky, permanently banning him from trading in markets the commodities regulator oversees.<\/p>\n
The CFTC said Thursday that a court consent order also bars Mashinsky from ever registering with the regulator and ends the enforcement action it first filed in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cMashinsky and Celsius engaged in a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of customers by mispresenting the safety, profitability, and regulatory compliance of Celsius\u2019 digital asset-based finance platform,\u201d the regulator said.<\/p>\n
The latest order means Mashinsky will never be able to trade US commodities, futures and derivatives. Earlier this year, the CFTC and the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance saying they considered most major cryptocurrencies to be commodities.<\/p>\n
Source: <\/em>CFTC<\/em><\/p>\n The settlement also puts an end to the CFTC\u2019s first case against a digital asset lending platform and marks the end of one of the last remaining regulatory actions pending against Mashinsky.<\/p>\n Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2025 after pleading guilty to securities and commodities fraud for misleading Celsius\u2019 customers about the safety of the crypto lending platform, which collapsed during a major market drawdown in 2022.<\/p>\n The CFTC alleged that Celsius received about $20 billion in funds and made risky investments to meet the returns it promised.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Onchain, in court: What happened in crypto legal news this week<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Mashinsky has already been banned from ever working in crypto or finance after settling a Federal Trade Commission complaint in April that permanently barred him from working with any product or service that can be used to \u201cdeposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw assets.\u201d<\/p>\n Mashinsky is still facing charges filed by the SEC in July 2023, accusing him of making an unregistered securities offering, misrepresenting Celsius\u2019 business and safety and manipulating the price of its Celsius (CEL) token.<\/p>\n The SEC told a federal court in late May that it has \u201cengaged in substantive settlement discussions\u201d with Mashinsky, but no agreement had been reached, with the court granting the regulators\u2019 request for another 60 days to continue discussions.<\/p>\n Mashinsky filed on May 26 to vacate his 12-year criminal sentence, claiming his lawyers were ineffective, that evidence was tainted by authorities\u2019 misconduct and that FTX co-founder and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was to blame for the manipulation of the CEL token.<\/p>\n A court on Saturday ordered prosecutors to respond to Mashinsky\u2019s request by mid-August.<\/p>\n Magazine: <\/strong><\/em>Big Questions: Do we really only need 2\u20135 cryptocurrencies?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has resolved its action against Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky, permanently banning him from trading in markets the commodities regulator oversees. The CFTC said Thursday that a court consent order also bars Mashinsky from ever registering with the regulator and ends the enforcement action it first filed in 2023. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/content\/pasted-image-1571.png\")
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