Maren Altman, the influencer astrologer who predicts bitcoin’s price, is in turmoil

Maren Altman, who made videos sponsored by Celsius, received $30,000 from the company. Some accuse him of having promoted Celsius and its token, before its bankruptcy.

It all started last Friday, when the accounts of Celsius users – currently bankrupt – were exposed. At that time, a witch hunt was organized, with some trying to find out if maximalist bitcoins actually held other cryptocurrencies, others checking the links between certain personalities and Celsius.

$30,000

That same day, Twitter user “BowTiedlguana”, who specializes in decentralized finance (DeFi), reveals that a certain Maren Altman received $30,000 from Celsius.

Except that Maren Altman is not just anyone. She is an influencer and astrologer who believes she can predict the price of bitcoin and ether through astrology. His description on his YouTube account is simple “astrocryptoetc”. Beyond the “predictions” of the astrologer, the latter is linked to many crypto companies, including the giant FTX as can be seen on its official page.

Her predictions have already convinced a certain audience, the latter having 237,000 subscribers on Twitter and more than 200,000 on Youtube.

“I grew up with astrology where you follow patterns and cycles. I also knew financial astrology, so it made sense to apply it to cryptocurrencies,” Maren Altman explained in Cointelegraph.

The affair thickens when the investigator ZachXBT (who also made it possible to identify the 5 French in the context of the theft of a collection of NFTs), accuses the latter of having lied about having been paid by Celsius.

Things don’t stop there: the influencer is accused of attracting investors to Celsius’ cel token. “These accusations are close to defamation”, explains Maren Altman in a postwho decides to be transparent about his relationship with Celsius.

At the beginning of 2022, she decides to contact several companies that are establishing partnerships with influencers. “I really vibrated with the creative team of Celsius”, she writes. Result: a contract is concluded in the spring – in March 2022 – and she makes a first video promoting the company.

Partnerships placed in “full moon” videos

“I usually put my partnerships in my full moon videos and integrated them into those videos,” she admits.

She indicates in particular that the videos made with Celsius were clearly identifiable as sponsored content, and that her contracts were paid in dollars. In her contract with Celsius, the latter was not “permitted” to talk about the cel token, the influencer told CoinDesk.

“I never told anyone to invest in the cel token, that would be illegal, first of all. Don’t like me, don’t like the women in this space, whatever, but that’s it completely incorrect”, she defends herself on her blog.

“My mistake was to trust Celsius”

On CoinDesk, the influencer specifies having discussed with a lawyer for a possible legal action for defamation. “My mistake was to trust Celsius,” she admits, adding that she had “no visibility” on the state of Celsius’s finances. His last video promoting Celsius was on May 24.

Celsius terminated the contract with the influencer in May 2022 “saying that she was restructuring and would not be pursuing any designer contracts,” the outlet said.

As a reminder, the Celsius cryptocurrency lending platform had frozen withdrawals and transfers from its users on June 12 in the context of strong market tension, plunging its 1.7 million customers, spread over more than 100 countries, into uncertainty about ever getting their funds back. Then, in mid-July, the group was placed under the American bankruptcy regime. A process still ongoing.

Celsius was one of the main cryptocurrency lending/staking platforms, which allowed you to lend your cryptocurrencies on a blockchain against interest. The company offered interest rates over 18% for savers, but only 0.1% for borrowers.