Alex Mashinsky is the founder of Celsius Network – a cryptocurrency lending platform which went bankrupt on July 13, 2022.
But what is the story behind Mashinsky and what is his net worth?
Who is Alex Mashinsky?
Alex Mashinsky was born in 1965 in Ukraine but later immigrated to Israel.
Mashinsky graduated from Tel Aviv University with a degree in Economics.
He then went on to serve in the Israeli Army from 1984-1987, where he trained as a pilot.
But after visiting New York in 1988, he never left, saying: “I looked around and I’m like, I’m never going back.”
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Mashinsky has gone on to start eight companies, including Transit Wireless which provides Wi-Fi to the New York City subway.
When Mashinsky first arrived in New York, he ran a business trading chemicals but following the Tiananmen Square, China protests in 1989, business slowed as exports of sodium cyanide from China stopped.
He then went on to work at A+ Systems, a computer-based voicemail software company before founding VoiceSmart in the early 1990s.
VoiceSmart was one of the first companies to offer telecom switches that could handle call routing for both ordinary voice and voice over Internet Protocol networks.
In 1996, Mashinsky founded Arbinet, which was a marketplace which allowed telecommunication companies to trade minutes.
In 2005, he sold his stake in Arbinet and used the profits to start GroundLink.
GroundLink allowed you to book limousines and car services through your smartphone.
He then founded Q-Wireless, which later became part of Transit Wireless, which went on to install free Wi-Fi internet service in the New York City subway system.
From 2014 to 2015, Mashinsky served as CEO of Novatel – a provider of Wi-Fi hotspot products
He then founded Celsius in 2017.
Celsius operated like a traditional bank but for cryptocurrency rather than fiat currency.
Celsius claimed it had 1.7 million users and $11.7 billion assets under management at its peak.
The firm offered over 7 per cent interest on stablecoins such as USDC and Tether, 7.25 per cent for Polygon, 6.25 per cent for Bitcoin and 6 per cent for Ethereum.
Celsius then loaned out its tokens at even higher rates to borrowers.
But the company struggled to generate enough revenue to pay the yields and collapsed in July 2022.
Mashinsky resigned as Celsius CEO on September 27, 2022.
In July 2023, Alex Mashinsky was arrested by US authorities and charged with fraud and market manipulation.
Mashinsky has been accused of misleading investors into putting billions of dollars into Celsius, portraying it “as a modern-day bank, where customers could safely deposit crypto assets and earn interest”.
Mashinsky has pleaded not guilty to seven counts.
What is Alex Mashinsky’s net worth?
Alex Mashinsky is still believed to have an estimated net worth of $50 million.
Mashinsky has invested in more than 60 businesses and raised more than $1 billion in funding for his ventures.
He has also achieved over $3 billion in exits.