Alex Mashinsky, his face long celebrated – then hated – from Celsius returns under the reflector, but this time it is no longer for his flight freedom. As an act that the former CEO represents and condemns US justice too serious according to his taste. While the Ministry of Justice requires a 20 -year -old sentence, a 59 -year -old man is screaming at an excess: for him, this sanction would be an equivalent “death penalty in prison”.
In short
- Alex Mashinsky, ex-general director of Celsius, risk 20 years in prison for fraud and market manipulation.
- He defends himself by condemning too serious justice, while the prosecutor sees the computation of the fraudster.
- Behind this court proceedings it is the ideal of crypto, which has vaccinated between decentralized dreams and human drifts.
A symbolic sentence or exemplary punishment?
The fall is brutal. Mashinsky, who previously promised freedom of crypt, is now facing imprisonment. He confessed to two numbers – fraud in raw materials and manipulation with the price of crypto.
These maneuvers brought him $ 48 million, spoiled just before the decorative collapse of Celsius in June 2022.
But his lawyers in the mood: Their client would be more embodiment of an unpleasant entrepreneur than an experienced criminal.
According to them, Mashinsky is and “A non -free primary perpetrator”With the virgin past and three decades of unanswered business. To compare him with the predator would be in their eyes a grotesque exaggeration. Excess of judicial zeal.
And this is where the narrative battle is formed. The Ministry of Justice depicts a cold man, calculators, liars, while the defense describes the scapegoat, trapped in an economic and institutional storm. Who to believe? CEO who created Cantor of Decentralized Finance, or a strategist who used a system that was about to sink?
Celsius, or a programmed sinking of a financial miracle
In order to understand the scandal range, it is necessary to return to the summer of 2022. Celsius suspends the selections, evokes volatile market conditions and eventually stores bankruptcy.
Four and a half billion dollars for creditors. Broken lives, rising savings, crypto hopes to decrease to dust. During this time, Mashinsky has secured its millions.
Hundreds of victims shared their testimonies. Many of them bet all their savings, some convinced by the soothing speeches of Mashinsky.
He promised a fairer system than the banks’ system, but Celsius turned out to be only Mirage: opaque, centralized and deeply vulnerable to the same excesses as the institutions he claimed to overcome.
Even after chaos, the glow persisted. In November 2023, the court approved the Restructuring Plan. In August 2024, more than $ 2.5 billion were donated to 251,000 creditors. Dressing, of course, but not healing. Evil has been done.
Today, while the hour of the sentence is approaching, the crypto community observes. For some, Mashinsky must pay a high price, to become an example that reflects future fraudsters. For others, his beliefs would be a distraction, a dramatic stroke aimed at calming the furious audience.
Mashinsky’s court exceeds his person. It reflects greater tension in the crypto of the universe: that between decentralized utopia and human reality, often eager, sometimes cynical. At a time when this sector is looking for its legitimacy, this case recalls that innovation will never clarify responsibility.
Crypto is not impunity. This is – or it should be – a requirement for absolute transparency. Mashinsky plays his last card. And the whole world observes, although for NASSIM Taleb, Bitcoin is just a technological tulip.
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Evariste, fascinated by Bitcoin since 2017, has not stopped documenting on this topic. If his first interest focused on trading, he now tries to actively understand all cryptocurrency progress. As an editor, he tries to permanently provide high quality work that reflects the condition of the sector as a whole.
Renunciation
The words and opinions expressed in this article are involved only by their author and should not be considered investment counseling. Do your own research before any investment decision.
