What is Celsius crypto lending platform and CEL?

Decentralized finance and crypto trading revolutionized their respective fields by making it accessible to everyone. Among the projects that revolutionize lending and savings accounts by cutting fees and bumping revenues is Celsius. Dive into our Celsius network review to learn more about how Celsius crypto reclaims finance from the banks!

Key Takeaways

Celsius (or Celsius Network) is a crypto asset financial services platform, mainly offering lending and depositing;
The utility token CEL is used to receive bonuses, such as boosting the yield or discounting the payment on loan;
The team has recently introduced a Web application and is in the process of moving to the United States. The move is to simplify the onboarding for American customers and to operate in a more regulated space.

What is Celsius?

Source: Celsius Network - BitcoinWiki

Celsius is a cryptocurrency financial service platform with a particular focus on banking and lending. Users of the app can collect rewards for cryptocurrency deposits, take loans with collateral and send their funds.

Locking Funds

Users can earn interest on their deposits if they choose to lock it in their Celsius account. The rewards are paid out weekly and can reach up to 17% according to the official website. Moreover, there is no minimal amount for deposits (though there are diminishing returns for large amounts of BTC and ETH) and no fees. By depositing crypto in a Celsius account you are actually providing them with liquidity to give loans to other customers. To incentivize you, they are providing annual percentage rewards in return, like a savings account.

Celsius Lending

To loan out USD or stablecoins (which can also be deposited for a return!) in a few minutes users can apply in the app. Their loan must be collateralized by a sum equivalent to 200% or more of the loan in other cryptocurrencies. To make sure a customer pays back and not to run out of liquidity, crypto lending protocols require collateral. You can pledge BTC and receive a loan in USD to make a payment in a matter of a few minutes.

Supported Currencies on Celsius

The platform supports 6 stablecoins (as well as USD) and 29 other popular cryptocurrencies for collateral. Supported stablecoins for both loans and collateral include TUSD, GUSD, DAI, USDT, USDC and PAX.

History of Celsius and Team

Celsius ICO was held in March 2018 and raised $50 million. The core product, Celsius Wallet, was released after almost a year of rigorous research, development and testing in early 2019. The platform is developed by Celsius Foundation, based in London with members all over the world. Its founders are Alex Mashinsky, VOIP inventor, S. Daniel Leon and Nuke Goldstein.

What is Celsius crypto, CEL?

Since we already mentioned the platform was funded by an ICO, an explanation of what is Celsius crypto is in order. The platform works with the help of a CEL utility token based on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can opt in to receive rewards on deposits in CEL for an increased APY (annual percentage yield). As for lending, if you choose to pay back the debt in CEL, you will receive a discount. The CEL distributed to users weekly are bought by Celsius Foundation from exchanges the week before, so the more users accrue, the more it has to buy. This buying pressure drives up the prices and value of CEL.

CEL Price History

Prior to 2019, the price of CEL was mostly driven by speculation and was well below the ICO price of $0.3. When the wallet launched, though, it really started to grow but did not reach this mark until June 2020. After that, CEL caught wind of the bullish market trends and commenced parabolic growth. What is Celsius crypto all-time high? The $8.02 record price was registered on June 3, 2021. At the moment of writing, the Celsius token price is $6.61 and ranks 57th by market capitalization according to CoinMarketCap.

What is Celsius crypto used for?

Celsius Network bonus tiers — Source: Celsius Network

The primary use case for CEL token is boosting payouts and receiving discounts on the Celsius platform. There are four bonus tiers in Celsius, depending on the amount of CEL a user has. Users are incentivized to keep their CEL tokens, as in addition to reward tiers, 80% of the Celsius Foundation’s revenue is given back to the token holders.

Comparison with Similar Projects: BlockFi, Nexo

Crypto-collateralized lending is not limited to Celsius, so there is plenty of competition. BlockFi works on the same premise: users can receive APY on deposits and loan cryptocurrencies in exchange for collateral. Unlike Celsius, it does not have a utility token. Nexo is more akin to Celsius, since they both have a utility token. But Nexo shares only 30% of dividends with NEXO holders as opposed to 80% to CEL holders. Compound is a similar protocol with the native token COMP being used for decentralized governance. In Compound, you can lend and borrow any of 13 supported cryptocurrencies. Here is further comparison of Celsius interest rates and supported currencies with these platforms: [table id=31 /]

What is Celsius crypto criticized for?

One of the most obvious points of contempt regarding Celsius is centralization. At the very least, Celsius lacks on-chain governance and decentralized treasury. Tangentially related, in April, Celsius’s email server was attacked and users started receiving phishing emails. Since Celsius keeps a database of users’ accounts, they have to be trusted with personal information for KYC, among other things. Messari crypto analytics raise another point of concern: Celsius lends not only to institutional traders and hedge funds but also to margin traders. If something happens to the exchange on which the margin trading programs are run, customer funds may be at risk.

Partnerships and future plans

Instead of drawing long-winding roadmaps, the Celsius team prefers to work in the present. Which is why updates and new features, like the Web app and credit card come as a pleasant surprise! The team is also in the process of moving jurisdictions from the UK to the US. To keep up with the development of the project, users are encouraged to follow the AMAs and updates from the executives and the team. Celsius offers their services for professional investors and traders. Their partners and API users include Bitwala, Voyager, Bitfinex, Infinito, Coinlend and LINE.

CEO of Avanti Financial Group, @CaitlinLong_ joins Alex @Mashinsky to discuss transparency and regulatory expectations in the current Crypto environment.https://t.co/EILQxFXkZe #CelsiusNetwork #CaitlinLong $CEL
— Celsius Point Australia ©️ (@UnbankAustralia) July 8, 2021

Unofficial Celsius account shared the interview of Alex Mashinsky with Caitlin Long, Wyoming Blockchain Coalition chairwoman. With Celsius moving to the US, they are giving plenty of attention to the regulatory landscape.

If my employer is ready, I’m ready to accept my salary in crypto at 80% of current salary. The only condition is to pay me in $Cel @CelsiusNetwork $BTC #Bitcoin $ETH $Matic
— CryptoMv © 🇲🇻🇸🇻 (@CryptoMv) July 8, 2021

Twitter user CryptoMv proposes an interesting idea for using CEL: pay your employees!

@CelsiusNetwork recently launched their Proof of Community feature which transparently shares all of the yield Celsians earn on a weekly basis.
I put together this app which visualizes the data, it now includes the 2nd week's dataset which just became available! $CEL pic.twitter.com/4GnUValeYa — Sean 瑪思 (@bonham_000) July 5, 2021

Blockchain developer Sean Smith built an app which tracks weekly payouts for Celsius users. After all, transparency is an important concept to the team and the community.

Which Wallet is the Best for CEL?

Naturally, CEL can be stored in the native app or some popular multi-coin wallets. If you want to store CEL outside of your account, pick Metamask or Trust Wallet. For safer storage, you can choose Ledger hardware wallet.

How to Get CEL with ChangeHero?

CEL can be traded on some crypto exchanges but it comes with a lot of unnecessary hassles. You have to create an account and deposit funds into the exchange’s custody. ChangeHero is an alternative way to trade CEL against any currency supported by the service. It’s a non-custodial instant cryptocurrency exchange, so you won’t have to worry about losing access to your funds or setting up an account. For your convenience, CEL can be bought on ChangeHero in five easy steps:

Choose the currencies on the home page, amounts and the type of exchange. Provide your wallet address in the next step and check the amounts;
Double-check the provided information, read and accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy;
Send in a single transaction the sum of cryptocurrency you will be exchanging. Fixed Rate transactions have a 15-minute limit;
And now, relax! We are doing all the work: checking the incoming transaction and doing the exchange as soon as it arrives;
As soon as the exchange has been processed, your CEL are on the way to your wallet. We’ll be happy to hear your feedback if you enjoyed using ChangeHero!

Customer support is always available in chat on our website, official Telegram group or through the email: [email protected].

Conclusion

Celsius Network takes their mission to unbank users one at a time pretty diligently. As of June, they have more than 300 thousand users, and show no signs of slowing down. Browse our blog for even more educational articles or subscribe to ChangeHero on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Telegram.

FAQs

What is the Celsius Network?

Is Celsius crypto legit?

Celsius has passed several independent security audits and serves more than 300 hundred customers worldwide.

What coins does Celsius support?

Which is better Celsius or BlockFi?

BlockFi works on the same premise: users can receive APY on deposits and loan cryptocurrencies in exchange for collateral. Unlike Celsius, it does not have a utility token. BlockFi supports 13 cryptocurrencies (against 35 on Celsius) and offers max APY of 7.5% (17.78% on Celsius).

Is Celsius Network insured?

Celsius assets are secured by their custodian, Fireblocks. Assets that are lent out, and are not in custody, are not covered by insurance.

Key Takeaways