Of course FTX gets all the mentions when it comes to fraudulent crypto companies. However, the Celsius case was also particularly bad. And Mashinsky was also particularly unrepentant and in your face about it.
The first issue was Celsius offering up to 17% APY. This was of course a huge red flag, but unfortunately this was only a green flag for the greed of many people who sadly believed that such returns were possible, or rather that a company would give out those kinds of returns and not keep much more for themselves.
Of course, the Ponzi crashed, but just before it did 4 Celsius execs managed for raid the coffers for $34M. What insidious, or devilishly brilliant as some would say, is that the execs used CEL tokens as collateral for loans to “borrow” company funds. Of course, after withdraws were halted and later bankruptcy came the value of these CEL tokens would massively fall in value, although that wouldn't be their problem.
All told the company had a hole of $4.7 Billion dollars owed to some significant portion of their 1.7 Million customers. Just to rub it in, Mashinsky and his wife started selling “Unbankrupt Yourself” t-shirts as a play/pun on the Celsius slogan “Unbank Yourself”.
Given all of this insanity it is strange it retrospect to even imagine how all this was possible, and yet it was. And it was really sad seeing the absolute financial ruin many people were left in after Celsius collapsed(see the last CNBC link below). Once more the morals of the story are not your keys not your crypto and don't be greedy.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/celsius-ceos-wife-selling-unbankrupt-yourself-t-shirts/435508
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/06/celsius-executives-withdrew-millions-before-freeze-on-customer-funds.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/02/celsius-investors-owed-4point7-billion-beg-judge-to-recover-life-savings.html
Mocking his own customers by selling these T-shirts
Out of all the scandals of this bear market, Alex not being indicted yet might be the biggest one
So it’s been one year already. Time flies. It seems it was like 1 month ago.
That 17% APY was just a bait to draw in more customers and people fell for it because of greed. I wish those fraudulent people are caught and taught a lesson. I pity for the victims. RIP to their money.
If it’s too good to be true, it is. Honestly promising 17% APY was unbelievably absurd. There is no such thing as free money and the dream of passive income is probably not realistic at the moment.
Isn’t this fraud? Why is he still free?
Its been a year since then? Jfc time flies
The t shirts is the weirdest part. Like what the fuck is wrong with this guy.
Still waiting for that scumbag to rot in jail together with Kwon and SBF…
Celsius, one of the reasons I am not invited to Thanksgiving or Christmas family dinner.
Thanks Alex Mashinsky.
They don’t protect their consumers and they don’t even respect their consumer. It’s enough. Stop using CEX to store our assets.
We are now obliged to store our own assets by having a seed phrase.
So many scams lately. They are leaving a bad impact on crypto adoption.
So can someone tell me why he isn’t in court being prosecuted like SBF is?
With enough money, you can get yourself out of any jam.
May be they start with the plan to scam users
That’s why and where crypto needs regulamentation. Companies offering bank services, without the rules that the banks must follow. The stupid banks need bailouts with the rules, imagine without. Let the exchanges be exchanges and end the rest of the Bs services. They are proven unsustainable by now.
What people forget is that at that time 17% looked good but also looked conservative and safe compared to the 1000%+ aprs being offered in the defi space.
That was the most scummy shit i ever saw in crypto. Even do kwons arrogant tweet made the blood boil but atleast they were not this bad.
If something sounds to good to be true it is probably a scam
That guy was so cringe in the John Oliver segment.
I’m surprised that these guys get away with theft of this magnitude, and there aren’t people in the general public trying to go after them personally since their identities are known.
im in celsius, i should get some btc back
That’s me, in the corner 🙁
the higher btc goes, the less % celsius will get back in btc
i was getting only 4% on stable coin on celsius
To be fair the %s weren’t much of a red flag or outrageous. 15%+ APY was mostly tokens you could already stake at 15%+ on-chain. And there were multiple centralized platforms operating in the same ballpark.
Coffeezilla video on it
https://youtu.be/1nVG8PF4ECU
Mascamsky would like to express sincere gratitude to Do Kwon and SBF
Truth be told, regulators and the general public look at crypto and these massive name cases and that’s why the industry gets no respect and is painted as shady. We are one more black swan event away from an irreversible stain akin to working in the tobacco and gambling industries.
nothing but actually mocking his own custmers.
I almost went with Celsius over crypto. com. I figured it was too good to be true
Till this day i cant believe that Alex got away scot free on this. SBF got arrested so why not alex?
Thieves. How these people aren’t in jail is baffling to me.
Those were the days when even Diamond hands panicked.
Everyone wanted deregulation and for the government to stay out of crypto. You want deregulation for the bull markets and regulation for the bears.
Not enough guillotine
Dude, Karma is legit, in this life or the next Alex or his reincarnated self with have a multitude of hardships to overcome.
I mean there was so much crap going on at the time that this was just a little less crazier than ftx or luna
Dang T-shirts to rub it in? How low can humans get?
Because it is a unregulated mess
War SEC
One for the crypto history books
Mahinsky being a complete dick with those tshirts are proof the rich or influencers are not your friends
The day I tried to withdraw my BTC is the exact day they paused withdrawals… I was an hour late 😤
Didn’t the FBI just raid his personal house two days ago? I don’t think he’s going to get away with it.
One major reason why centralized services need to be regulated properly… Everybody who is screaming against regulator actions forget that such stories are behind the motivation to get some rules here
And I am all for it.. we need some stability here and means to make such fraudsters accountable
But in hindsight I guess that’s just how finance gurus rug pull.. they do it slowly with enough substance to their “company” to be able to call it a business failure at the end…
Time flies
>The first issue was Celsius offering up to 17% APY. This was of course a huge red flag, but
*looking at Moon liquidity pool* *sighs*
Unregulated. None of the traditional rules apply even in these insane things that have happened in crypto the last 5 years or so.
It’s really impressive how much money flows through these companies with how little oversight.
I mean, nevermind that the thing they trade is cryptocurrency. Any other company would be sued and fined into oblivion, yet somehow finance is a free for all, it seems.
I was a member of an “autosurfing” ponzi site like 20 years ago that gave you 12% daily profit. It actually ran smoothly for years and then the SEC and every other law agency got involved and arrested the owner and shut the site down.
The owner had like a million in her bank account and they arrested the fuck out of her yet these guys rob people of billions and nothing happens??