Thread by @otisa502

1/15 Celsius frequently represented that it intended to create a “community” amongst its customers, to whom Celsius referred to as “the Celsians.” Celsius paired its public goal of creating a Celsius community with its promise that Celsius would provide a

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2/15 measure of altruistic goodwill to customers. In a since- deleted 2019 blog post, Celsius wrote that it was “founded by an innovative team with a simple idea: Financial services should only ever act in the best interest of their community.”

3/15 The post went on to distinguish Celsius from interest- earning accounts at its competitor, BlockFi. Celsius noted that BlockFi’s terms of use expressly stated that BlockFi did not have a fiduciary relationship with its customers.

4/15 Mr. Mashinsky stated in this post that he “cannot imagine defining such an untrusting relationship between our community and our company. He then “encourage[d]” readers to “read our own terms and conditions and see how we are acting in your best interest.”

5/15 Mr. Mashinsky told the Examiner that he never personally read the Celsius Terms of Use. In the first version of the Celsius Terms of Use, governing all Celsius products and in effect at the time of this 2019 blog post, Celsius disclaimed any relationship

6/15 with its customers, stating “no provision contained herein shall be deemed to create any relationship between the parties hereto other than the relationship of Celsius and User.” The initial Terms of Use also disclaimed any warranty of Celsius’s

7/15 services and contained provisions limiting its liability. Starting with the second iteration of the Terms of Use that went into effect on March 5, 2020, and continuing through the version published on April 14, 2022, Celsius told its customers that

8/15 “[t]hese Terms and the holding of [the] Digital Asset relationship does not create a fiduciary relationship between us and you. . . . On March 11, 2018, Celsius posted to Twitter: “Integrity is at the forefront of every step we take, putting the community first.

9/15 You will hear @Mashinsky regularly share his beliefs about if you #DoGood you will also #DoWell.” On October 6, 2020, Celsius posted to its blog: What we bring to the economy, using what blockchain enables us, is a financial institution that puts

10/15 the community first and offers customers the best income because we can keep the expenses minimal. This is also a model to bring the full financial services to truly unbanked part[s] of the world which could, one day, make the cryptocurrency economy a

11/15 reality for the whole worldwide population. Can we really bring unprecedented financial freedom, economic opportunity and income equality to everyone in the world? We are Celsius. We dream big.

12/15 Celsius also regularly addressed its communications with customers to the “community” and held in-person “meetups” in various locations for customers to meet Celsius employees. In the weekly AMAs, Mr. Mashinsky told viewers that “we always lean on the conservative side ...

13/15 because we have to protect the community first” and that Celsius sought to hire people with a “proven” history of “put[ting] the community first.” Mr. Mashinsky often said that Celsius could “do good and do well at the same time.”

14/15 Celsius’s internal marketing strategy emphasized the “community first” theme. Celsius’s internal “Brand Guidelines” emphasized the community that Celsius claimed it put “first.” The Brand Guidelines directed Marketing personnel to use language in

15/15 public statements such as: “Do well by doing good. “Giving back is in our DNA, and we always want to put our community first.” “We earn using our community’s capital so it’s only fair we share our revenue with them.”