According to a recent report by the Financial Times, Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky withdrew a whopping $10 million from the platform to pay taxes right before the cryptocurrency lender froze the accounts of its customers, sending shockwaves across the market.
The damning revelation will put more pressure on Mashinsky, one of the most influential cryptocurrency personalities who has experienced a spectacular fall from grace over the past few months.
The question remains whether the Celsius founder was aware of the fact that the crypto lender’s clients would have their funds locked on the platform.
A spokesperson for Mashinsky claims that he has an additional $44 million frozen on the platform.
One of the leading cryptocurrency lending companies suddenly announced the suspension of withdrawals in early June. After just a month, the company ended up filing for bankruptcy protection. It turned out that the company had a $1.2 billion gap in its balance sheet.
While it is commonly believed that Celsius is one of the top casualties of the market crash that took place in June, Vermont regulators recently suggested that the firm had been misleading the industry about the state of its finances for a long period of time. Even though Mashinsky claimed that the firm was profitable last year, its financial state was rather dire unbeknown to the company’s investors.
As reported by U.Today, the price of the CEL token took another hit last week after Mashinsky announced that he was stepping down as CEO of the embattled company.
Denys Serhiichuk