Celsius Founder Alex Mashinsky Sentenced to 12 Years for Crypto Fraud
Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for defrauding hundreds of thousands of customers who were drawn to the platform by promises of high yields on crypto deposits.
The sentencing was delivered Thursday by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan. Mashinsky had pleaded guilty in December to multiple fraud-related charges. Federal prosecutors, who had sought a 20-year term, described the 59-year-old executive as “unrepentant.”
Celsius Network collapsed in 2022 amid the broader crypto market downturn, leaving billions in user assets frozen. Mashinsky was accused of misrepresenting the safety and stability of the platform while engaging in risky trading strategies behind the scenes.
This marks one of the most high-profile convictions in the ongoing U.S. crackdown on fraudulent practices in the digital asset industry.
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
