Celsius Founder Exposed! Sold Millions of CEL Tokens Over the Years, Kept Selling Until Withdrawals Were Suspended

The lending platform Celsius has recently been embroiled in a series of controversies due to reputation issues, with rumors even circulating about the possibility of bankruptcy. During this period, the foreign media Dirty Bubble Media analyzed the wallet fund flows of its founder, Alex Mashinsky, and discovered that he may have dumped a large amount of his own CEL tokens in the past few years, making profits of up to tens of millions of dollars.

This article summarizes the key points. For any doubts, please refer to the original article.

Celsius Founder Sells Large Amounts of CEL Tokens

According to a report by Dirty Bubble Media, Celsius founder Mashinsky allocated a large amount of CEL tokens to himself during the company's early days and allegedly sold them on the market over the years. The following are the possible wallet fund flows related to Mashinsky:

1. Large Deposit Wallet 0x34f30e540x34f30e54: Potential profit of around $100,000

On August 22, 2019, Mashinsky tweeted that he had deposited 76.99 million CEL tokens, approximately 11% of the total market value, into the Celsius network. It was verified that on that day, only one wallet transferred such a large amount, and this wallet transferred 1 million CEL tokens to the Liquid exchange, worth about $100,000 at the time.

2. Rugpull Wallet 0x11729acC: Potential profit of around $1 million

This wallet processed a transfer of 80 million CEL tokens on May 22, 2018, and provided initial funds to Mashinsky's NFT wallet. Additionally, this wallet was involved in three ICO scams publicly disclosed by Mashinsky: Sirin Labs, MicroMoney, and Tie Network. Apart from sending millions of CEL tokens to other wallets, this wallet also transferred 6.3 million CEL tokens to the Liquid exchange, worth approximately $1 million at the time.

3. Mashinsky's NFT Wallet 0xc33192B: Potential profit of around $12 million

This wallet holds Mashinsky NFTs, currently represented by a hexagonal shape in Mashinsky's Twitter profile picture, indicating that the user truly controls this wallet and confirming it as his own. The wallet sold over 6 million CEL tokens through a decentralized exchange, earning around $12 million at the time.

4. High Liquidity Provider Wallet 0xf716F34: Potential profit of around $21 million

This wallet is a major liquidity provider for CEL, depositing and withdrawing large amounts of CEL and ETH to the Uniswap CEL liquidity pool. Additionally, this wallet received 78,000 CEL tokens from Mashinsky's NFT wallet and 1 million CEL tokens from the Celsius core wallet 0x90e5e0a. The wallet sold approximately 2.4 million CEL tokens through a decentralized exchange, earning around $21 million at the time.

5. Wallet Purchasing 19,000 CEL Tokens 0x6d27BA0x6d27BA: Potential profit of around $8 million

Based on Mashinsky's previous Twitter posts, it is confirmed that this wallet is controlled by Mashinsky. The wallet received approximately 2 million CEL tokens from two other wallets and sold them all through a decentralized exchange, earning around $8 million in ETH and USDC at the time.

6. Wallet Holding USAstrong Tokens 0x23cE21: Potential profit of around $300,000

This wallet received an ETH transfer from the fifth wallet 0x6d27BA0x6d27BA and is one of the four wallets holding USAstrong tokens, issued by USAstrong.io, a company founded by Mashinsky's wife, Krissy Mashinsky. The wallet sold approximately 370,000 CEL tokens through a decentralized exchange, earning around $300,000 in USDC at the time.

HODL for You, But Not for Me

According to the investigation results, Dirty Bubble Media estimates that during Mashinsky's tenure as CEO of Celsius, he made profits of at least $40 million by selling CEL. There are many wallets associated with the aforementioned wallets, so the actual profit amount may be higher. While his customers were HODLing CEL and even using it as collateral for loans, Mashinsky was quietly selling millions of CEL tokens.

"In the final days before the Celsius network suspended withdrawals, he continued to sell tokens, with the last known sale coming from the USAstrong wallet on May 25, 2022," Dirty Bubble Media stated.