Celsius’ Top 3 Execs Cashed Out $56M

The top three executives of cryptocurrency lender Celsius took $56.12M in bitcoin between May and June 2022, just before the company ceased withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy.

Former CEO Alex Mashinsky, former CSO Daniel Leon, and CTO Nuke Goldstein withdrew cash from the blocked accounts in the form of bitcoin, ether, USDC, and CEL tokens, according to a Financial Affairs statement released Wednesday evening.

The filing is one of several filed in bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York. It includes over a dozen executives, including the company’s chief compliance officer Oren Blonstein, chief risk officer, Rodney Sunada-Wong, and a new CEO. Chris Ferraro has not made any major exits during this period. In May 2022, Mashinsky withdrew about $10M in cryptocurrencies. Moreover, between May 27 and May 31, Leon received approximately $7M. Goldstein withdrew about $13M.

Newest Documents

The latest documents released Wednesday are regarding the troubled cryptocurrency lender’s bankruptcy proceedings. The U.S. Trustee’s office hired an independent examiner to investigate why Celsius failed and how it managed and stored customer money.

Key members of the lender’s management have discussed new restructuring plans, including the possibility of converting the company’s debt into tokens and moving to crypto storage. However, the court plans to auction Celsius’ assets later this month.

According to another court filing issued Wednesday, the bankruptcy court ordered Celsius to provide regular updates to the Unsecured Creditors Committee (UCC), which represents all customers to whom Celsius owes assets, on its financial situation and cash management.

Lenders have to disclose their monthly budget, cash flow, salaries, and tax expenses, especially numerous performance statistics for their Bitcoin mining business, as well as revenue from the sale of BTC mined at the company’s mining facilities.