2022 would likely go down in history as one of the most detrimental years for the crypto space. While adoption took the front stage, losses followed suit. In addition to this, the downfall of Terra, as well as the Celsius Network, added to the market turmoil. Just as the crypto-verse was recovering, Celsius decided to pull the plug on its withdrawals citing “extreme market conditions.” The abrupt announcement caused the community to call out the platform for insolvency.
Dismissing these rumors, the CEO of the Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky suggested that the funds were safe and the platform was working round the clock to fix the issue. However, things seem to be taking a whole new turn. Earlier today, crypto analyst Mike Alfred took to Twitter and revealed that Mashinsky was trying to flee the country.
In a recent thread, Alfred said,
As mentioned in the above tweet, it remains uncertain if the Celsius CEO was arrested or exempted from leaving the country. So are these allegations. However, Alfred’s sources allege that Mashinsky was heading to Israel.
Additionally, speaking about Celsius’s whole fiasco of pausing withdrawals and Mashinsky’s radio silence, Alfred said,
“Celsius froze withdrawals 2 weeks ago, just days after Alex Mashinsky lied to customers about the safety of their funds. Mashinsky has gone silent and there is no sign that customer funds will be released anytime soon. It’s in the hands of the lawyers now, for better or worse.”
While investors continue to drown in fear, Celsius was out there hiring experts to file for bankruptcy. The network reportedly welcomed restructuring advisers from the firm Alvarez & Marsal.
Update – Celsius reached out to Watcher.Guru and affirmed that allegations about CEO Alex Mashinsky trying to flee the country were false. The crypto lending platform said,
“Consistent with our previous messages, all Celsius employees – including our CEO – are focused and hard at work in an effort to stabilize liquidity and operations. To that end, any reports that the Celsius CEO has attempted to leave the U.S. are false.”
Celsius [CEL] and its deterring price
Like the bear market hadn’t done enough, Celsius’s native crypto, CEL took a massive hit. The altcoin remains nearly 90 percent below its all-time high of $8.02.
At press time, CEL was trading for a low of $0.8276 with an 18 percent drop in the last 24 hours. These numbers weren’t that bad as the asset plummeted to a low of $0.155, earlier this month.