What it was
Celsius took deposits of bitcoin and other crypto assets and paid interest on them. The Securities and Exchange Commission dates the platform's inception to 2018 and describes the core product as the Earn Interest Program, under which customers handed their assets to Celsius in exchange for a promised return. There were also secured loans against deposited collateral, and a custody service. The Department of Justice records that the company marketed itself as the "safest place for your crypto" and told customers to "unbank" themselves.
By the autumn of 2021 the DOJ puts the platform's holdings at roughly $25 billion at peak. On 12 June 2022 Celsius halted withdrawals. The DOJ states that at that moment hundreds of thousands of customers had $4.7 billion in assets they could not reach. Celsius filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of New York on 13 July 2022, case number 22-10964. The bankruptcy court confirmed a plan on 9 November 2023, and the post-effective-date estate was still running distributions in 2025, payable in bitcoin or cash.
The Bitcoin connection is direct and unhappy: the deposits were real bitcoin, taken into a commingled pool and lent onward, and the failure is one of the standard arguments for holding your own keys.
On the record
Alexander Mashinsky, Celsius's founder and former chief executive, pleaded guilty on 3 December 2024 before US District Judge John G. Koeltl in the Southern District of New York. On 8 May 2025 the same judge sentenced him to 12 years for committing commodities fraud and securities fraud at Celsius, with three years of supervised release, a $50,000 fine and forfeiture of $48,393,446. The DOJ's account of the conduct includes misrepresenting the safety and profitability of the business, and buying the company's own CEL token on the open market, at times with customer deposits, to hold its price up.
The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with the Celsius companies on 13 July 2023. They agreed to a permanent ban on handling consumer assets and to a judgment of $4.7 billion, suspended so that remaining assets could go back to customers through the bankruptcy. On 20 July 2026 the FTC announced stipulated final orders under which Mashinsky pays $10 million, co-founder Shlomi Daniel Leon $4.1 million and co-founder Hanoch Goldstein $2.4 million, filed in the Southern District of New York.
The SEC filed a parallel civil complaint against Celsius Network Limited and Mashinsky on 13 July 2023, alleging unregistered offers and sales, false and misleading statements and manipulation of CEL. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed its own action. Listing here is not endorsement.