CFTC resolves enforcement action against Celsius founder Alexander Mashinsky with permanent trading ban

Alexander Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, is now permanently banned from trading commodities and from registering with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A US District Court judge approved the consent order on June 12, 2026, formally closing the book on the CFTC’s enforcement action against one of crypto’s most high-profile fraudsters.

Mashinsky admitted to the allegations laid out by the CFTC as part of the agreement.

The long paper trail

The CFTC first filed its enforcement action against Mashinsky in July 2023. That wasn’t a solo effort. The Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission all launched parallel investigations around the same time, each zeroing in on a similar set of accusations.

The core allegation across agencies: Mashinsky and Celsius misrepresented the safety and risk profile of their platform to convince customers to deposit digital assets. Those customers collectively lost an estimated $4.7 billion.

Mashinsky pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud in December 2024. By May 2025, he was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $48.4 million in forfeiture.

In April 2026, a separate settlement with the Federal Trade Commission hit Mashinsky with a $10 million payment and a lifetime ban from participating in any crypto-related financial services. The CFTC consent order approved in June effectively piles on, ensuring that even if Mashinsky somehow resurfaces after serving his sentence, the commodities markets are off-limits permanently.

What Celsius actually did

Celsius launched in 2017 and quickly became one of the most prominent crypto lending platforms in the space. Regulators alleged that Celsius was taking enormous risks with customer deposits, including investing in illiquid and speculative positions, while publicly downplaying those risks. When the crypto market turned south in 2022, Celsius froze customer withdrawals in June of that year and filed for bankruptcy the following month.

The bankruptcy proceedings eventually allowed some creditors to recover a portion of their holdings. The $4.7 billion figure represents the scale of damage that regulators traced back to Mashinsky’s management of the platform.

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