CFTC Settlement Bans Celsius Founder Mashinsky From Trading

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.

“Mashinsky and Celsius engaged in a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of customers by mispresenting the safety, profitability, and regulatory compliance of Celsius’ digital asset-based finance platform,” the regulator said.

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.

Source: CFTC

The settlement also puts an end to the CFTC’s first case against a digital asset lending platform and marks the end of one of the last remaining regulatory actions pending against Mashinsky.

Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2025 after pleading guilty to securities and commodities fraud for misleading Celsius’ customers about the safety of the crypto lending platform, which collapsed during a major market drawdown in 2022.

The CFTC alleged that Celsius received about $20 billion in funds and made risky investments to meet the returns it promised. 

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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 “deposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw assets.”

Mashinsky is still facing charges filed by the SEC in July 2023, accusing him of making an unregistered securities offering, misrepresenting Celsius’ business and safety and manipulating the price of its Celsius (CEL) token.

The SEC told a federal court in late May that it has “engaged in substantive settlement discussions” with Mashinsky, but no agreement had been reached, with the court granting the regulators’ request for another 60 days to continue discussions.

Mashinsky filed on May 26 to vacate his 12-year criminal sentence, claiming his lawyers were ineffective, that evidence was tainted by authorities’ misconduct and that FTX co-founder and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was to blame for the manipulation of the CEL token.

A court on Saturday ordered prosecutors to respond to Mashinsky’s request by mid-August.

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