Founders of Celsius to Pay FTC Millions of Dollars: The Price of Betraying Trust
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has achieved a significant success in the case against the former leadership of the bankrupt crypto company Celsius. The platform's co-founders, Shlomi Daniel Leon and Hanoch Goldstein, are required to pay the regulator over $6 million to settle claims related to misleading statements about the service's security.
Settlement Terms and Payment Amounts
The liability amounts are distributed unevenly: Leon must pay $4.1 million, while Goldstein is required to contribute $2.014 million. In addition to financial penalties, both founders are banned from promoting and selling any products or services related to asset and cryptocurrency operations. These payments will be credited under a broader $4.72 billion agreement reached by the FTC with Celsius as a whole.
Why This Matters for the Market
This precedent serves as a harsh reminder to the entire industry: promises of "safety" and "reliability" without real backing will not go unpunished. Celsius long positioned itself as a secure income-generating tool, but the platform's collapse in the summer of 2022 revealed that behind the loud slogans lay a risky financial model.
My comment as an analyst: The FTC is consistently increasing pressure on crypto companies that neglect basic disclosure principles. This decision is not just a fine but a signal: regulators are ready to hold top executives personally accountable, not just legal entities. For honest market players, this means a need to revise marketing strategies and strengthen internal compliance, otherwise reputational and financial losses could become irreversible.