{"id":4945,"date":"2023-07-06T13:28:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T13:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/06\/cftc-finds-celsius-network-and-its-ex-ceo-guilty-of-breaking-rules\/"},"modified":"2023-07-06T13:28:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T13:28:25","slug":"cftc-finds-celsius-network-and-its-ex-ceo-guilty-of-breaking-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/2023\/07\/06\/cftc-finds-celsius-network-and-its-ex-ceo-guilty-of-breaking-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"CFTC Finds Celsius Network and Its Ex-CEO Guilty of Breaking Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)<\/strong>\u00a0investigators have ruled that crypto lender\u00a0\u00a0and its former CEO\u00a0Alex Mashinsky<\/strong>\u00a0violated US rules before the company collapsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The findings suggest that Celsius misled investors and failed to register with the CFTC,\u00a0, citing people familiar with the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the majority of the CFTC\u2019s commissioners agree with these conclusions, the agency could file a case in federal court within the month, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The collapse of Celsius Network has already resulted in legal action, with New York Attorney General Letitia James alleging that Mashinsky made false statements about the platform\u2019s safety and misrepresented the company\u2019s financial condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a lawsuit filed in January, James accused Mashinsky of defrauding hundreds of thousands of investors, including over 26,000 New Yorkers, out of billions of dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She accused him of using \u201cfalse and misleading representations\u201d to entice customers to deposit billions of dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mashinsky and his lawyers\u00a0, arguing that the lawsuit demonstrates a lack of understanding of Celsius\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

Mashinsky, who co-founded Celsius in 2017, raised funds through an initial coin offering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company experienced a significant surge in popularity during the pandemic, introducing loan offerings and attractive interest rates for virtual token deposits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mashinsky often positioned these offerings as safer alternatives to those offered by traditional banks. However, the collapse of\u00a0\u00a0and a downturn in the crypto market led to disastrous consequences for the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite vehemently denying substantial losses, Celsius faced a wave of customer withdrawals, eventually freezing withdrawals in June 2022, and\u00a0\u00a0protection a month later.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are also conducting their own investigations into Celsius, according to bankruptcy filings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

US Regulators Increase Scrutiny of Crypto Firms<\/h2>\n

The CFTC\u2019s action against Celsius comes as the agency has become increasingly involved in the crypto industry as of late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In March, the regulatory agency\u00a0\u00a0that it is suing Binance and founder Changpeng \u201cCZ\u201d Zhao on allegations that the crypto exchange knowingly offered unregistered crypto derivative products in the US in the transgression of the law.<\/p>\n

CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam recently informed lawmakers that the regulator has brought over 85 cases related to fraud and manipulation in the digital asset market, resulting in over $4 billion in penalties and restitution, the Bloomberg report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CFTC asserts its jurisdiction over\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0, considering them commodities and claiming authority in cases of suspected fraud or manipulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Separately, the SEC has also\u00a0, the largest US crypto exchange. Both companies maintain their innocence.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the commission has taken enforcement action against crypto exchanges\u00a0and , as well as crypto lending platform\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>so far this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\n
This post appeared first on cryptonews.com<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)\u00a0investigators have ruled that crypto lender\u00a0\u00a0and its former CEO\u00a0Alex Mashinsky\u00a0violated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketmakersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}