Celsius Network co-founder Alex Mashinsky was in a defiant mood on Twitter this past weekend. When asked by one user why he had so many enemies, Mashinsky boasted: “because I am winning and giving it all to my community”. Days later, his crypto investment firm is in crisis after it blocked customer withdrawals, a move that shook crypto markets.
The abrupt halt in redemptions underscores the risks for investors who have piled in to complex digital asset products that offer high returns. Celsius claimed to have 1.7mn retail customers, including in the US, UK and Israel, and gained a reputation for making aggressive bets with its depositors’ money.
The investment group, which is broadly unregulated beyond lending licences in a handful of US states, had grown to as much as $24bn of crypto assets under management in December last year. It garnered a surge of inflows shortly after winning investment from Canada’s second largest pension fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and Westcap, a fund led by former Blackstone and Airbnb executive Laurence Tosi.