New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on October 8 a settlement with former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky that can require him to pay up to $35 million to the state and permanently bars him from trading securities and crypto. The figure is split into $25 million in damages plus a $10 million monetary judgment; the latter may be offset by Mashinsky’s federal forfeiture obligations, which explains the “up to” phrasing. The settlement resolves claims under New York’s Martin Act tied to Celsius’s Earn Interest Accounts and the CEL token and identifies more than 26,000 affected New York investors.
The complaint alleged Mashinsky sold 25 million CEL tokens worth $68.7 million without disclosure while publicly touting the token, and that Celsius used depositor assets in risky strategies it concealed. Mashinsky pleaded guilty in 2025 and is serving a 12-year federal sentence; he was ordered to forfeit $48,393,446. Federal regulators also enacted penalties in 2026: a June CFTC consent order permanently barred him from trading, and a July FTC settlement imposed a $10 million payment plus a lifetime promotional ban. The SEC reached an agreement in principle in September, which a judge dismissed without prejudice pending finalization.
Celsius’s collapse continues to be resolved across parallel tracks. Sources describe the bankruptcy’s shortfall variously as more than $1 billion and as losses topping $4.7 billion; meanwhile New York’s office reports that creditors received over $3.4 billion through the bankruptcy as of August 2026. Mashinsky has sought to vacate his conviction and sentence, representing himself; federal prosecutors opposed the motion and several court decisions have left discovery requests denied. How much New York will actually collect depends on interaction with federal forfeiture and other offsets, and the settlement highlights overlapping state and federal enforcement rather than simply additive penalties.