Today in crypto, the US Department of Justice has requested a 20-year prison sentence for Alex Mashinsky, the co-founder and former CEO of defunct crypto lender Celsius, a crypto group petitioned the White House to drop charges against crypto devs, including Tornado Cash’s Roman Storm, and Arizona’s House passed two crypto reserve bills.
US DOJ requests 20-year sentence for Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky
Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, faces a 20-year prison sentence as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks a severe penalty for his role in a multibillion-dollar fraud.
The DOJ on April 28 filed the government’s sentencing memorandum against Mashinsky, recommending a 20-year prison sentence for his fraudulent actions, which led to billions of dollars in losses for Celsius customers.
The 97-page memo mentioned that Celsius users were unable to access approximately $4.7 billion in crypto assets after the platform halted withdrawals on June 12, 2022.
“The Court should sentence Alexander Mashinsky to twenty years’ imprisonment as just punishment for his years-long campaign of lies and self-dealing that left in its wake billions in losses and thousands of victimized customers,” the DOJ stated.
In addition to the investor losses, the DOJ noted that Mashinsky has personally profited from the fraudulent schemes in his role.
As part of his guilty plea in December 2024, Mashinsky admitted that he was the leader of the criminal activity at Celsius, that his crimes resulted in losses in excess of $550 million, and that he personally benefited more than $48 million, the DOJ said.
The DOJ highlighted that Mashinsky’s guilty plea showed that his crimes were “not the product of negligence, naivete, or bad luck,” but rather the result of “deliberate, calculated decisions to lie, deceive, and steal in pursuit of personal fortune.”
Crypto group asks Trump to end prosecution of crypto devs
The DeFi Education Fund has led an April 28 petition to White House crypto czar David Sacks asking to end what it claimed was the “lawless prosecution” of open-source software developers, including Roman Storm, a creator of the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.
The group urged President Donald Trump “to take immediate action to discontinue the Biden-era Department of Justice’s lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development.”
They said that in Storm’s case, who was charged in August 2023 with helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through Tornado Cash, the Department of Justice is attempting to hold software developers criminally liable for how others use their code, which is “not only absurd in principle, but it sets a precedent that potentially chills all crypto development in the United States.”
The petition has so far attracted over 250 signatures from industry executives and developers.
Meanwhile, lawyers for executives of the crypto mixer Samourai Wallet, charged with money laundering and unlicensed money transmitting, said prosecutors are mulling whether to dismiss the case after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche shuttered the DOJ’s crypto team earlier this month.
Arizona legislature moves forward with Bitcoin reserve bills
Lawmakers in the Arizona House of Representatives have voted to pass two bills that could allow the state to adopt a reserve using Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptocurrencies.
In a third reading on April 28 of the Senate Bill 1025 (SB1025), a proposal to amend Arizona’s statutes to allow for a strategic BTC reserve, 31 members of the Arizona House voted in favor of the bill, with 25 opposed. A similar bill, SB1373, to establish a state-level digital assets reserve, passed with 37 lawmakers in favor and 19 voting nay.
“This bill basically takes the approach that probably 15 other states are considering the same legislation nationwide that allows the treasurer to invest up to 10% into, probably mainly Bitcoin but other things as well,” said State Representative Jeff Weninger on SB1025. “I think this probably would start as a ‘may’ for the foreseeable future, but as things continue to pivot towards Bitcoin and these things, would have that already in place in the future.”
