Overview
- A federal judge entered a consent order on Thursday, June 18 that permanently bars Alexander Mashinsky from trading in markets the CFTC oversees and from registering with the agency.
- The CFTC’s complaint said Mashinsky and Celsius ran a scheme that misled hundreds of thousands of customers about platform safety and returns while deploying about $20 billion in pooled deposits into risky uncollateralized loans and DeFi deals.
- The civil consent order did not add a new monetary fine because regulators relied on Mashinsky’s prior criminal forfeiture and penalties from his guilty plea and 12-year prison sentence.
- Separate actions remain: Mashinsky settled with the FTC in April with a $10 million payment and a broad industry bar, the SEC’s civil case is unresolved, and he has filed a motion to vacate his criminal sentence with prosecutors ordered to respond by mid-August.
- The order closes the CFTC’s first enforcement case against a digital-asset lending platform and strengthens a regulatory path for holding crypto lenders and their executives personally accountable while bankruptcy distributions continue to return funds to victims.