Just listen to me now we are going to Stop these retail clawbacks together all Of us we're going to band together we're Going to get the pitchforks we're gonna Get the lanterns we're gonna go under The banner of rough Justice We just passed the one year anniversary Of Celsius filing for bankruptcy A Dark Day in crypto history in the end of one Of the largest crypto companies ever Built Lots happened since then and it's Been hard to keep up with all the new Developments throughout the still Ongoing bankruptcy process I've been Very active calling lawyers on live Streams arguing with security guards and Just generally trying to keep up with This garbage fire To mark this one year anniversary and Alex machinski's recent arrest it's time To do a retrospective to see how far Things have come and more importantly Refocus on where they might be going This one really makes my blood boil so Grab your thermometers things are about To heat up let's get it Foreign Crypto my name is Ben all right let's Talk Celsius first the backstory Celsius Network was a centralized crypto lending And trading platform that was based in The U.S Celsius was founded in 2017 by Alex machinski Daniel Leon and Newt Goldstein no I'm not going to make any
Nuke puns in this video But the irony of His name is not lost on me it would be Funny if it wasn't so tragic Celsius Launched with an Ico in 2018 selling 325 Million sell tokens 20 cents each and Raising about 50 million dollars now fun Fact the first blockchain conference I Ever went to was in July of 2018. I Think it was called the blockchain World Conference John McAfee was the main Speaker who was in Atlantic City but he Didn't show up in person because he was On the run as he always was so he called In the next day but guess who took his Spot in July of 2018 to show Celsius on Stage for probably the first time that's Right my first run in with Alex Machinski and I gotta be honest I was Blown away by what he said because he Said a lot of good things gave you a lot Of confidence but Celsius grabbed a lot Of attention of course right away by Offering incredibly high yield on Digital assets well I've got your Attention be sure to go and smash that Like button that puts you in the bid Squad and makes you stay up to date with The latest and greatest in the world of Crypto so in order to get the highest Rates Celsius users would have to hold a Significant amount of their portfolio And sell tokens and be willing to get Paid and sell two so the employees took Their bonuses and sell celsia has
Implemented a buyback program and a burn For their sell tokens as well making it Operate in a similar fashion to ftx's Ftt token now all this should have been More of a red flag than it was at the Time but the rates they were paying on Most assets without the sell bonus Weren't that unreasonable based on what Was available from D5 and sticking at The time but in hindsight someone's Offering yield that sounds too good to Be true it probably is tokens burn Lessons Learned Celsius was also Offering incredibly low rates on lending Services which again could be lowered Further if users held enough sell tokens Now in order to pay out these unusually High rates Celsius would do anything and Everything to earn yield lend it out Playing DVI stake mine and get downright Degen on leveraged loans but we'll come Back to that later at the peak of the Ponzi Celsius was holding estimated 30 Billion dollars worth of crypto and Users were earning about three million Dollars of yield per day which made them One of the biggest centralized players In all of crypto and a respected Branding platform for a while at least Okay so where did Celsius begin to Collapse and it's hard to pinpoint Exactly but it seems to have started in July of 2021 when liquid Stadium Platform stakehound lost the keys to 74
Million dollars of State beef most of Which belong to Celsius the November of 2021 your own Shalom CFO sells these was Arrested in Israel on money laundering Charges which again in retrospect just Wow this was one big red flag that we Gave no attention to shortly after that In December of 2021 Badger Dow suffered An exploit which impacted Celsius for an Estimated 50 million dollars of rap Bitcoin a month later in January 2022 it Was finally announced that the SEC was Investigating Celsius and other high Yields crypto lenders in the U.S Celsius Apparently struck a deal to avoid being Shut down if they limited their high Yield products to accredited investors Thanks so much for all the investor Protection on that one Gary great job Really outstanding work As a word to April and most of retail it Pulled out of the platform to look for Yield where they didn't have to be Accredited Celsius assets had dropped to 11 million dollars by May of 2022 and They had invested 500 million dollars Into Bitcoin mining operations that were A long way from being profitable then Before we knew it the unthinkable Happened and all hell broke loose Tara Lynn is UST lost its Peg and a project With a 40 billion dollar market cap Disappeared almost overnight kicking off Waves of collapse in crypto companies
Three arrows Voyager digital FTX and Others including Celsius of course now Associates claimed to have cashed out of Luna and USD prior to the collapse that Appears to be true but rumors still ran Wild they were insolvent in June of 2022 Eat devs delayed the merge again which Was significant because it meant that All the state Peas on liquid state and Platform Lido finance will remain locked Up on the beacon chain for longer while We all waited for the merge to happen Panic set in and there was a rush to Swap fly does Ste or state D for East SBS Alameda research for example Redeemed 50 000 stake deed tokens in a Single move along with a lot of other Large players the rush to exit stake Teeth push it off its Peg to the price Of eth and this led to fears that Celsius wouldn't be able to get the eat Needed to honor withdrawals to since They were one of the largest holders of Safety and that my friends is how you Start a bank run salesy's users pulled Out in mass and Celsius was forced Deposit all withdrawals on the 12th of June 2022 for Celsius goes bankrupt Let's take a quick pause take a word From our sponsor steak All right back to it on July 13th Celsius filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy That time they appeared to be about 1.2 Billion dollars in the hole blaming
Excuses start being thrown around right Away Timothy cradle sells his former Compliance and financial crimes director Said that although he didn't believe That Celsius was corrupt the biggest Issue was a failure of risk management To be honest this has to be one of the Biggest understatements of all time That's like saying the United States has A little bit of debt Thanks for that insight there Timothy Great job on directing the financial Crimes at Celsius Came out the Celsius had spent about 350 Million dollars of customer funds on its Buy back and burn program The correct reported that Celsius had Lost almost the same amount of customer Funds on high risk leverage trading talk About the buy bit sweats am I right That's got to be one of the most Degen Business practices I've ever heard Outside of FTX of course but we'll get To that in a minute now throughout the Bankruptcy I have to say Celsius Community has been incredibly engaged in Really shown themselves to be among the Best people in crypto stories have been Heartbreaking and the losses are Terrible but it's also been encouraging To see community members organize Themselves and fight back for their Interests in all this mess there were a Lot of people from Bitcoin ogs like
Simon Dixon to Anonymous Celsius Twitter Warriors who set it through endless Examiner reports bankruptcy filings and Get detailed reviews of proposals for The new company that seem likely to Emerge from this bankruptcy process Regardless of how bad the situation was It was great to see so many smart people And Tiffany Fong put their heads Together on this one that was a joke we Love Tiffany okay so where do things Stand as of today Well first it looks like they're going To offer sell tokens at 20 cents the Value of the Ico instead of the 81 cents It was at the time of the bankruptcy Fahrenheit's probably going to win the Bid and become the new company that Merges out of bankruptcy with no Connection to the prior Celsius company Other than the obvious connection of the New name being a play on Celsius very Cute but also kind of dumb if you ask me Should have named it Kelvin it's Actually the metric system on June 27th Fahrenheit released their disclosure Statement of detailing their plan to Conclude bankruptcy and launcher in the Company it's over 300 pages so we'll Leave a link in the description if You're looking for a fun beach read this Summer the gist of it is Celsius earned Creditors could receive about 36.4 Percent of liquid crypto and 33.3
Percent of recovery stock for a total About 70 recovery of their assets on the Platform here's a much more detailed Breakdown of how they plan to compensate Different users of different types if You want to pause the video and take a Closer look Simply put fahrenheit's plan is to try To use the Celsius mining operations as A new business go public and then issue The recovery stock to users the idea is That it will become more valuable in the Future and thereby at least have a Chance at making everyone whole in my Opinion this is very risky but all Things considered I didn't think this is A better deal than nothing or of course Just dumping all the assets in the midst Of the bear Market it was a terrible Idea to solve all coins for Bitcoin Ethereum recently that was pretty much The bottom of the altcoin market but the Thing that really bothered me about all This were the retail clawbacks the idea That the court might demand users who Withdrew their crypto prior to the Collapse of Celsius to return all or Some of that crypto in my view this is Completely intolerable and I've made That very clear people who are smart Enough to jump off a sinking ship well They deserve to live I support going After insiders who drew Millions for the Collapse people like Alex his wife
Chrissy Daniel Leon and Pew I mean nuke Goldstein enter their credit Fahrenheit In the UCC are doing that but to come After the life savings of individuals Who are smart enough to bail that's Unacceptable Voice's opinion several Times you've been calling some lawyers On some exciting live streams back in The day hi this is Greg fashion my white Case how are you hey Greg pesh how are You doing Fine I've got your voicemail okay do for You yeah I'm just wondering like about The retail clawbacks and the fact that People are literally talking about Killing themselves that you have a Decision in front of you guys to for Rough Justice Um is your friend Keith said and I would Like to know why is this decision that Pads all of your own Pockets that the Lawyers are making all the money on this Why are you guys decided to screw over The everyday person this got me AJ and Aaron kicked out of a few offices in New York for sure some of them even sent People to my house to try to threaten me All because I was standing out for the Little guy and calling out their Attempts to attack retail investors for Celsius negligence under no circumstance Would I allow them to line their own Pockets with the money they wanted to Recover
Basically I think I'm going to Batman of crypto Bit boy if you will Smash the like button if you like those Cherished Big Boy memories as you can Tell this whole situation makes my blood Boil but the key takeaway from all of This is that it proves the need for Crypto it proves we need a system of Truth not trust and it shows once again That you cannot trust centralized Players you shouldn't have to join the Bit loud Academy if you want help Learning how to navigate the world of Crypto and by the way this is a lesson We've had to relearn the hard way too I Had millions of dollars of crypto Including my xrp locked up on Celsius So for those of you who got hurt by this I just want you to know I see you I feel You I'm with you if I'm with you and I'm Feeling you that may be weird but don't Lose hope we can rebuild and get through This together and I know that we will Okay let's keep the ball rolling the Last time I saw Alex and Chrissy Michinski was at nft NYC in 2023 with my Friend Tiffany Okay I try then to get an interview with him But of course he turned me down then on July 14 2023 Justice would finally Served his obviously he was placed under Arrest and charged with Securities
Commodities and wire fraud as well as Various Securities manipulation and Fraud charges of course if I'm not Guilty and was released on a 40 million Dollar bail but I think there's going to Be some prison time in machinski's Future I think the main thing that's Going to get him is trying to suppress The truth very clearly towards the end With that being said I think it's Important to point out there was some Truth in the ramblings that Alex was Spouting every week and his amas but I Digress here's the point of the message I want you to take away from this banks Are not your friend and if crypto is the Replacement we do need a lot of the Basic Financial Services the Celsius are Trying to offer for that to be done Right it has to be done carefully I'll Also say that in talking to a lot of People with Insider knowledge and Cryptographic proof there does seem to Be a lot more to this story as we know FTX was artificially manipulating the Price of ICP new coin Reef Casper Several other projects I've seen what I Consider to be credible evidence and the Long-standing rumors of the cell Committee that Alameda research was Shorting sell token on FTX with 20 Million dollars of counterfeit cell Tokens I'm not sure when or how all this Will come to light or how it will play
Out well it's important for now is that You stay educated about the progressing Bankruptcy process stay informed about How to protect yourself and kind of That's what Alex was trying to do in a Sense that triggered all this Alex Machinski went to the Bahamas in January Of 2022. he took one look at the FTX Office and knew he had made a big Mistake by putting Celsius funds in the Form of tether of usdt On FTX to earn yield so he removes all Of the tether early in 2022 and this is What causes Sam to have a vendetta Against him and specifically goes after Celsius now one resource that's been Very helpful for me is the retail combat Protection group on telegram which I Highly encourage you to join if you Might be at risk of a clawback they're Currently in the process of organizing a Coordinated legal defense urge you to Consider getting involved if you think You might get a clawbacks we'll leave a Link in the description so you can find Them and get up to speed as a Celsius Continues and the new company Fahrenheit Seems poised to emerge it's important That we all take a moment to reflect and Take the temperature On why we're in crypto and make sure That we carry the lessons of the Celsius Collapse forward so we can be prepared To avoid similar situations in the
Future when the heat gets turned up Until then keep building stay humble And keep carrying the banner of rough Justice that's all I got be blessed big Boy out Thank you
