Celsius’ Top Brass Redeemed Millions Weeks Before Bankruptcy

Co-founders Alex Mashinsky and Dan Leon withdrew around $10 million each before the platform’s controversial transfer halt, new documents show

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Celsius’ court disclosure follows resignations from Mashinsky and Leon
  • Several other executives made no significant withdrawals around the same time, transaction details showed

The highest-ranking executives at bankrupt lender Celsius withdrew more than $15 million combined before the platform’s withdrawal freeze on June 12.

A statement of financial affairs submitted to court on Wednesday detailed Celsius co-founders Alex Mashinsky and Dan Leon’s financial actions in the days leading up to the lender’s transfer halt.

The executives made multiple withdrawals and internal account transfers around late May, including cryptoassets including bitcoin, ether and the platform’s native CEL token, documents running into more than 14,000 pages showed.

Mashinsky’s withdrawals were in the amount of $10 million, in line with what the Financial Times earlier reported. Leon’s withdrawals amounted to $7 million, in addition to CEL tokens worth $4 million.

Blockworks earlier reported that CTO Nuke Goldstein withdrew $13 million. But lawyers for the executive pointed out that he moved his funds within accounts on Celsius, involving corresponding deposits.

“Indeed, in the year before the pause, Mr. Goldstein had net positive deposits into Celsius (including interest), not withdrawals,” they wrote.

The Celsius bankruptcy case’s latest development follows the resignations of both Mashinsky and Leon. Mashinsky has said he was “very sorry” about the financial difficulties customers face. Meanwhile, Leon provided no public statement about his departure.

Other Celsius insiders including Chief Compliance Officer Oren Blonstein, Global Head of Business Processes Adrian Alisie, former Chief Financial Officer Rod Bolger and General Counsel Ron Deutsch did not carry out significant withdrawal transactions, according to the documents.

Since the lender’s bankruptcy, a group representing the company’s unsecured creditors has been investigating the key players who held decision-making authority. Upon the release of the lengthy documents, the committee said it would “carefully review the voluminous disclosures, which will inform key next steps for the process.”

The lender is currently looking to auction its assets, with a final bid deadline set for Oct. 17.  FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who recently secured a $1.4 billion buyout for Voyager, is reportedly eyeing Celsius’ assets.

Celsius didn’t return Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.

This article corrected Goldstein’s transaction details on Oct. 6 at 11:54 pm ET.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

Bitcoin is still rising, 11 years after the documentary film The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

article-image

Arch Labs CEO told Blockworks that the team plans to launch a native token, but declined to give details

article-image

CEO Mike Silagadze tells Blockworks that the US is “open for business” and why its DeFi bank offering is the first of many

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best

article-image

Why an analyst is kicking off COIN coverage with “buy” rating