Celsius CEO reportedly took charge of trading strategy before collapse
Alex Mashinsky’s interest rates concern prompted intervention ‘to start cutting risk’
The CEO of the bankrupt crypto lending firm Celsius Network took personal control of its trading strategy months before its collapse, the Financial Times has reported.
According to “multiple people familiar with the matter”, the Financial Times claimed Alex Mashinksy had told his investment team that he would be personally assuming control of Celsius’ trading strategy in January 2022.
This came two months after the price of Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, had fallen from its an all-time high of $68,789 in November and was trading at $47,686 at the start of January. The meeting also preceded the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates and taper the last of its Covid-19-era support. Mashinsky was reportedly convinced that such a shift would cause havoc for the cryptocurrency sector.
One person told the FT: “He had a high conviction of how bad the market could move south. He wanted us to start cutting risk however Celsius could.” Another stated: “He was ordering the traders to massively trade the book off of bad information. He was slugging around huge chunks of Bitcoin.”
In July, Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after citing “extreme market conditions” had led it to freeze client withdrawals on 12 June.
Despite a request from Currency.com, there was no immediate respone from Celsius Network about the Financial Times report.
