itself much like a bank but without the same regulations, it attracted a global customer base — including Australians — many of whom had their assets locked up as cryptocurrency prices collapsed and the company ran aground.

The plight of these retail investors was spotlighted in recent weeks by software engineer and frequent cryptocurrency critic Molly White, who began to tweet moving excerpts from hundreds of letters sent to the New York bankruptcy court and shared in court exhibits.

"The stereotype of people who are putting money into crypto is … young, technologically savvy men," Ms White said.

"And that did not seem to be the demographic in the letters.

"There were a lot of people saying, 'this is my life savings, my pension, I worked 10, 20, 30 years to save this money.'"

Ms White also shared letters from people who said they were based in Australia, many of whom described their utter desperation and even thoughts of suicide after they were blocked from accessing funds.

One woman said the impact on her family had been severe.

She included an email she sent to Celsius management begging to be allowed to withdraw some of her funds. The email included an ultrasound picture of her unborn child.

Others wrote of their emotional turmoil:

"I have lost everything. How can I explain this to my son? I feel ashamed at myself."

"That was our life savings. It was our chance of having a baby, and funding medical expenses. It was our chance of taking care of our parents as they age."

A father of three in Australia wrote he had "his life savings in a Celsius earn account", and that he'd also convinced his father to deposit cryptocurrency assets into Celsius as a "safe haven".

As well as putting a personal face to the cryptocurrency crash, many of the letters cite the online presence of Celsius chief executive Alex Mashinsky as a key reason for investing.

They bring up his regular YouTube AMA or "ask me anything" sessions, in which he projected supreme confidence until the end, and a willingness to call out what he saw as "misinformation" about his company on Twitter.

Ms White was also struck by how many letters specifically cited Mr Mashinsky, and his online persona.

"Those [AMA sessions] clearly worked really well to build trust in him and in the platform," she said.

"And people basically believed that Alex Mashinsky as a person would not do this to them."

'We're at the bottom, and we're trying to be loud'

Claire* is one of the Australians with assets locked up in Celsius who wrote to the judge.

She returned to Australia in 2020 after more than a decade living in the United States, and was after a career change.

A university course in financial technology introduced her to cryptocurrencies, and she took a shine to the industry.

But Claire said she struggled to find a job in the field and when trying to start her own businesses, found that Australian banks wouldn't lend to her due to a lack of local credit history.

A US cousin introduced her to bitcoin mining, and she ended up locking away around $US50,000 worth of bitcoin as collateral for a loan from Celsius.

"I was very attracted to their loan facility, because I couldn't get a loan here for anything," she said.

"Cryptocurrency for a person who is in that situation is … more attractive."

While she is not in as dire a situation as some other Celsius customers, Claire said the goal of writing her letter was to ensure the voices of smaller investors were heard as the company's debts are considered.

It's still unclear how the process will play out.

Original Story By | Ariel Bogle