Maren Altman, a popular bitcoin and ether-focused astrologist, is suddenly a fallen star among some Twitter critics. A newly surfaced court document shows she received $30,000 in marketing payments from the crypto lender Celsius Network in the months before it declared bankruptcy.
Altman’s Twitter critics say she received the money to create favorable content about Celsius while the company was suffering cash flow issues, and they criticized her for being less than forthcoming about the payments.
In an interview with CoinDesk, Altman, who offers investing predictions based partly on her astrological interpretations to a vast social media audience that includes more than 237,000 Twitter followers, acknowledged that Celsius paid her but called the Twitter accusations “a witch hunt.” She said she has spoken with an attorney about possible legal action, such as suing for defamation.
“My error was trusting Celsius,” she said. Did she know about Celsius’ finances, Altman said, “Not a clue, no visibility on anything other than my marketing campaign.”
The uproar comes as Celsius is embroiled in lengthy, complicated court proceedings over how to pay back irate shareholders and customers. A court document released last week showed Celsius founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky and another executive withdrew $17 million from the platform right before the company froze user accounts and filed for bankruptcy.
Celsius’ problems have contributed to a wider free fall in…
