# Celsius Network **Celsius Network** was a cryptocurrency lending platform founded in 2017 by [[Alex Mashinsky]], marketed to retail depositors under the slogan "Unbank Yourself" with advertised yields as high as roughly 17–18% on deposited digital assets. At its peak it claimed billions in customer assets and issued its own token, **CEL**. Celsius **froze customer withdrawals in June 2022** and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following month with a reported **$1.19 billion balance-sheet hole**. Its failure was one of the opening events in the 2022 crypto credit contagion that ran through Three Arrows Capital, Voyager, and ultimately [[FTX]]. Federal prosecutors later charged Mashinsky with misrepresenting the platform's safety and profitability and with manipulating the price of the CEL token while quietly selling his own holdings. He pleaded guilty in December 2024 and was sentenced to 12 years in May 2025. ## Cross-references - Founder and CEO: [[Alex Mashinsky]] - Contagion partner and successor scandal: [[FTX]], [[FTX Collapse]] - Regulatory arc: [[Cryptocurrency Regulation Timeline]], [[Cryptocurrency Sector]] > [!note] Stub > Expand: the CEL tokenomics, the bankruptcy estate and creditor recovery, the Ionic Digital successor entity, and the parallel SEC/CFTC/FTC actions.