There was only one problem: Armstrong had been central to encouraging them to deposit their money with Celsius in the first place.
Armstrong had talked up the company often on his daily YouTube show and, just two weeks earlier, even appeared with Celsius’s chief executive on its weekly promotional video. (“Atlanta is famous for BitBoy, no longer for CNN,” Mashinsky had said admiringly.)
Armstrong is a leading example of a crypto influencer. One-part media personality, one-part untrained investment adviser, the 39-year-old Georgia native wields significant power in the world of cryptocurrency investment, steering tip-hungry online trawlers to the latest token. In polished daily news-like feeds featuring a team of deputies and videos designed to go viral (in one, he drives around the Atlanta area in wraparound sunglasses suggesting the best way to invest $1,000), he has become a go-to source for the newest crypto trends.
BitBoy’s rise — and even his recent Celsius wobble — highlights how low the threshold can be for gaining power amid the…
