Former Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on May 8, 2025, after pleading guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud. The criminal sentence also includes three years of supervised release, a $50,000 fine, and forfeiture of $48,393,446, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
What did Alex Mashinsky plead guilty to?
On December 3, 2024, Mashinsky pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud. The DOJ described the conduct as two schemes: misleading Celsius customers about the company’s business and finances, and manipulating Celsius’s CEL token price while Mashinsky sold his own tokens. The DOJ’s guilty-plea announcement outlines those admissions.
Misleading customers about Celsius
Celsius offered rewards on deposited crypto, custody services, and loans secured by crypto. Its Earn program promised to use customers’ assets to generate returns. Prosecutors said Mashinsky made false claims about the safety of Celsius’s yield-generating activity, its profitability, whether reward rates were sustainable, and the risks customers faced by depositing assets.
CEL token sales and price manipulation
CEL was Celsius’s proprietary token. The DOJ said Celsius made large market purchases to support and inflate CEL’s price, sometimes using customer deposits without disclosing that practice to customers. Prosecutors also said Mashinsky publicly claimed he was not selling CEL while he sold significant personal holdings. The DOJ reported that his sales generated approximately $48 million.
#1 Best Overall
What did the 12-year sentence include?
Judge John G. Koeltl imposed the sentence on May 8, 2025. In addition to 12 years in prison, the criminal judgment included three years of supervised release, a $50,000 fine, and forfeiture of $48,393,446, as stated in the DOJ’s sentencing announcement.
The fine and forfeiture are separate terms of the criminal sentence. The DOJ identifies the forfeiture amount, but the sources cited here do not establish its collection status or show that the sentence by itself repaid customers or resolved every claim related to Celsius.
What happened to Celsius customers’ crypto?
Celsius halted customer withdrawals on June 12, 2022. The DOJ said hundreds of thousands of customers then had approximately $4.7 billion in crypto assets on the platform that they could not access. Celsius filed for bankruptcy on July 13, 2022.
The DOJ also reported that Celsius had approximately $25 billion in assets at its peak in fall 2021. That peak-assets figure describes a different point and measure than the approximately $4.7 billion in customer crypto inaccessible when withdrawals stopped; they should not be treated as interchangeable.
How is the CFTC action different from the criminal case?
On June 18, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a consent order resolving its separate 2023 enforcement action against Mashinsky. The CFTC said the order imposed permanent trading and registration bans and permanently enjoined him from certain anti-fraud violations under the Commodity Exchange Act. Those are terms of a separate civil regulatory matter, not additions to the criminal sentence. The CFTC also cited approximately $20 billion in value received by Celsius in its summary of allegations; that figure is distinct from Celsius’s DOJ-reported peak assets and Mashinsky’s criminal forfeiture. See the CFTC announcement for its summary.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What officials said about the case
In the May 8, 2025 sentencing release, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said: “The case for tokenization and the use of digital assets is strong but it is not a license to deceive. The rules against fraud still apply, and the SDNY will hold those who flout them accountable for their crimes.”
Quick Recap
Best Value
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
