Introduction
If you’re looking for a crypto savings account on a platform where you’ll never have to worry about the security of your cryptocurrencies, then Celsius is the place to go. The world is caught within tough financial times, and several solutions have popped up: investing in digital assets/cryptocurrency.
If you’ve done cryptocurrency trading before, you most probably have heard of platforms like FTX, Binance, etc. Celsius is another platform that offers crypto-trading and is famous for its interest rates.
In this article, we’re going to look into the platform in depth. Let’s start.
What is the Celsius Network?
Celsius is a London-based crypto-derivative platform founded by Alex Mashinsky, S. Daniel Leon and Nuke Goldstein in 2017. The goal behind the platform’s making was to provide a cryptocurrency-based financial credit and interest platform.
Celsius allows you to borrow, pay, lend or transfer crypto-assets straight from their platform. It operates like a banking system but differs so that it remits almost 80% of the profit it earns from its customers to their accounts. The remaining 20% is used to cover operating expenses as well as paying employees and such-like activities.
That revenue system allows users to strike heavy interest rates on specific cryptos in their wallets to the extent of 16%. As a result, Celsius is offering competition to the banking system and revolutionizing the digital financial marketplace.
You can access the Celsius network, a web-based platform or their newly-released mobile applications.
How to Open a Celsius Network Account
You’ll need to either download the Celsius mobile app or access the platform through https://celsius.network to use their web app. Additionally, Celsius has a mobile application for both Android and iOS.
Once you’re done with installing the mobile application, click on ‘Join Celsius.’
You’ll be offered different sign-in options; Facebook, Google, Twitter and Gmail. Choose your most convenient login method and fill in the required identity details. Then, again, go through the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and tick the box.
After signing in, Celsius needs to collect some information for your Celsius Wallet. You’ll need to enter the following details :
- First name
- Last time
- Password.
- After entering all that, you should tick the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use box, then click on ‘Create Wallet.’
- If you have a promo code, there’s a section to fill before you can create your wallet.
- After creating your wallet, you’ll be prompted by the platform to create a 6-digit pin to secure your account.
After setting and confirming your pin, you’ll now need to verify your account to have full access to your Celsius wallet.
- Enter the required personal info required on the prompted fields, then click continue.
- Feed in your residential address info, then hit continue
- You’ll receive a prompt giving you an option of three documents with which you’d wish to verify your account with. Click on your choice and allow your camera to take a picture of the document you’ve chosen.
- If you live in the US, you’ll be required to enter your Social Security Number. If you don’t live in the US, then you don’t need that step.
- After you’re through with your SSN, then you’ll have successfully submitted your Celsius KYC data. Celsius will now have to check on your information before they can verify your account. Verification takes minutes. If you don’t get a response in 24 hours, kindly contact Support.
What Currencies does Celsius Network Support?
The Celsius Network supports a good number of crypto and Fiat. The following table summarizes the information.
| Supported Cryptocurrencies | Fiat Currencies Supported |
| Bitcoin, Ethereum, Gemini Dollar, USDC, Paxos Standard, Bitcoin SV, Binance USD, Mana, Uniswap, SNX, UMA, COMP, AAVE, TrueUSD, TrueCAD, TrueHKD, TrueGBP, USDT, PAX Gold, DAI, 0x, OMG Network, Dash, Ripple, Stellar, Litecoin, Livepeer, Polygon, Kyber Network. | AUD, CAD, GBP, EUR, CHF, BRL, RUB, SEK, NOK, NZD, DKK, USD, CZK, HUF, RON, INR, TRY, HKD, BGN, TWD, KES, PEN, ARS, CLP, COP, ISK, VND, IDR, JPY, ZAR, MYR, PHP, HRK |
What are the Celsius Network Fees?
Unlike several Cryptocurrency platforms, Celsius doesn’t charge fees for purchasing crypto coins. There are also no withdrawal fees, origination fees or termination fees. However, Celsius partners charge some interest on crypto purchases.
- Coinify – 0.5% fee
- Wyre Bank Transfers (ACF) – 0.1% fee
- Simplex – 3.5% or $10 fee min. For UK and EEA residents, $2.99
What are the Main Features of the Celsius Network?
The Celsius network doesn’t offer much in terms of features. However, the available few features are worth your time and effort. So let’s look into them.
Rewards
The Celsius Rewards service is the most attractive market in the Celsius network.
The service acts as a standard savings account but comes with significantly higher payback rates and risks. In addition, the interest rates have been increasing in the past few years and are assigned to users in ‘tiers.’
All you have to do is deposit cryptocurrency on the Celsius platform. From there, you’ll be eligible to earn interest with rates that range from 2.02-17.78% or more. The rate is substantially higher than in the platform’s competitors.
Find more on the Rewards service in the Celsius Token below.
The Celsius Token
The Celsius Token is the native crypto of the Celsius network. It comes with several benefits for the Celsius investor, and it is an asset by itself. For example, the CelToken had seen a 9,000% rise in value since 2018 when it was created!`
The Celsius Token allows you to earn from keeping crypto assets in your account in the form of CelTokens. However, the earning rates are not the same and are graded in a tiered loyalty program.
Here’s the basic structure of the CelToken Loyalty program.
Level CEL Earning Bonus
Bronze 5% – 10%
Silver 10% – 15%
Gold 15% – 25%
Platinum >25%
To earn the highest rewards/rates, you need to be Platinum level.
You’ll be receiving higher bonuses for keeping CEL in your account, as opposed to other currencies. However, the feature is not beneficial to users in the US, as they cannot buy CEL through the Celsius app. Besides, the feature is available to the rest of the world where Celsius is supported.
Borrowing
Like every other banking system, Celsius offers crypto-backed loans. The loans are appealing to investors because you don’t have to pay taxes related to the same. But, again, with the Celsius crypto-backed loans, it is your crypto that is used as collateral. Furthermore, you don’t have to undergo credit checks, and the loan is either fulfilled through crypto or any supported fiat. Moreover, there are no origination fees required to get started.
The most commonly asked question when it comes to Celsius loans is the interest rates. Celsius loan interest rates range from 0.75% to 8.95%. The lowest interests are available for platinum level users and only those that use CEL rather than Fiat. Again, Loan terms are in 6, 12, 24 and 36 months.
Your interest rate also depends on the Loan-To-Value ratio (LTV), which translates to the percentage of your crypto assets you’d like to borrow. Higher LTVs earn you more interest but usually require less collateral.
Here’s a basic structure of the LTV-interest ratio.
- 25% – 1.0%
- 33% – 6.95%
- 50% – 8.95%
Again, holding CEL in your account also affects APR. The higher the tier on the Loyalty Level gives you great discounts on your loan’s interest. For instance;
Loyalty Level Loan Interest Discount
Bronze (5-10%) 5%
Silver (10-15%) 10%
Gold (15-25%) 15%
Platinum (>25%) 25%
CelPay
Celsius not only lets you keep your crypto in their account but also allows you to pay for products using the same. However, even when it can be seen as a decentralized form of payment, it also poses an investment opportunity. In other words, Celsius allows you to spend your earnings, not just keep them.
You can now send, receive, get paid and pay in crypto through the Celsius app.
There are several advantages attached to sending and receiving funds via Celsius. As you would have guessed, these benefits come along with using CEL for CelPay. Here are the advantages of using CelPay for your transaction.
- There’s a 2% cash-back on all CelPay CEL transactions.
- The Celsius system prioritizes those with the highest CEL balances when the availability of dollar loans is limited.
How do you Fund your Celsius Wallet?
Unlike other digital crypto-wallets which hold Fiat, the Celsius wallet only holds digital assets. Therefore, you’ll have several options;
- You can purchase your digital assets using Fiat through your Celsius wallet.
- You can buy your assets outside Celsius and then transfer them to your Celsius wallet.
- You can also purchase your digital assets from a bank and then move them to your Celsius wallet. But, of course, you can also do the same using a credit or debit card.
- You can purchase crypto from other platforms then transfer them to your Celsius wallet. You can also receive crypto from your friends using CelPay.
The ‘bank method’ takes around four days for the whole process to go through and your digital assets to appear in your wallet. However, the fee associated with the same is minimal, and it might be worth the wait for some people. On the other hand, some people may not be pleased with the wait as the volatility in the Crypto industry is high, and losing a single second may mean missing a life-long opportunity.
The Credit/Debit payment method is fast and reliable but attracts a little bit more fee.
Let’s talk about withdrawing funds from your Celsius wallet.
You can withdraw funds from your Celsius wallet any time of the day, on any day. So as soon as you hit the withdraw button, Celsius starts to process your payment, which may take up to three days.
What are the risks associated with using the Celsius Network?
When institutions venture into lending and borrowing to create interest, the risk is one factor to always have in mind.
In the Celsius network, your crypto-assets will be lent to others for interest. So 80% of the interest is what Celsius gives back to you, and they keep the rest.
That aside, what covers your funds in the Celsius wallet?
Celsius Insurance Cover
Celsius claims to have up to $30 million in digital assets held up by its custodians PrimeTrust and Fireblocks in case of an emergency. However, it is not publicly disclosed on the net amount of digital assets Celsius keeps. That raises the question of whether $30m can cover all losses if the network collapses.
Again, Celsius has access to your wallet and can use your funds to lend other traders for interest. That might sound like a lack of privacy, but Celsius has kept a clean record of dealing with peoples’ coins in the marketplace. The last thing you’d experience is the disappearance of your funds.
Is the Celsius Network Regulated?
The Celsius Network is registered as a Crypto currency-asset business by FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) in the UK. However, it has filed for an exemption with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US.
In other countries, the Celsius Network is among the most state-compliant companies within the cryptocurrency sector.
How is the Celsius Network Secured?
The Online Crypto-lending system is full of hacks and scams, and you’ll somehow need closure on the safety of your digital assets. No system can claim to be 100% hack-free, so yes, the risk still stands.
However, Celsius has never been attacked or hacked since its founding in 2017. That is as a result of concrete security systems put in place to secure your digital assets. Your transactions are also secure and hard to track, as you can only send money to an address that comes as a combination of over 20 numbers and letters, which are hard to trace/guess.
Moreover, Celsius uses several additional security features for the safety of transactions that include;
- 2FA
- A biometric scan
- A HODL mode that gives you the ability to disable outgoing transactions from the crypto wallet.
Celsius also has another feature that gives you the authority to safelist specific addresses for account protection. Moreover, Celsius is developing a self-insurance feature to enhance security and minimize the risks on bad days.
It is also advisable that you activate all security features in your Celsius account.
Borrower Risk – How is Investment in Celsius secured?
The Borrower risk refers to the risk that a loanee won’t repay the loan they acquired. In most money-lending platforms, the organization has to set a legal contract with all borrowers. However, in Celsius, your coins are taken and distributed to different borrowers to attract interest. As said before, when you agree to the Terms of Service and User Agreement, you let Celsius fully access your wallet.
When someone borrows from the Celsius platform, the loan is secured with the crypto-assets on their Celsius wallet. That means that you have to deposit more than your loan amount in your wallet to qualify for the loan. The loan amount and interest will depend on the assets in your wallet and your APR.
When borrowing from Celsius, you’re obliged to agree on specific terms that consist of APR and LTV considerations. If the market shifts rapidly and your LTV increases, Celsius begins to contact you concerning any pending loans.
As soon as the LTV rises to 65%, you’ll be notified to deposit extra collateral so that the final amount matches the initial agreed-upon terms. If you don’t wish to add more collateral, then you should consider repaying the loan.
It is best to react quickly and resolve the situation since Celsius will liquidate all your collateral when the increased LTV reaches 80%. Going by that principle, the risk of losing your assets as a depositor due to the failure of payment of a borrower is completely nullified.
What are the Pros and Cons of the Celsius Network?
Like every other Crypto-lending platform, Celsius has its set of advantages and limitations.
Here’s a quick summary.
| Pros | Cons |
| There’s no buying/selling/withdrawing fee. There’s no Crypto-loan product origination fee. The CelPay platform is an innovative way to make payments while still earning. There’s no limit for minimum balance or deposit. Celsius has a high potential APY rate; 17.78% | Most benefits are only gained by CEL holders. APYs are volatile. The unavailability of the CEL-buying feature in the US is a significant disadvantage to US residents. |
Conclusion
Celsius is an up-and-coming platform in the Cryptocurrency world, especially in the Crypto-banking sector. The low-to-no fee rates are second to no other crypto-platform, and yes, you’ll be better positioned to get better rates if you’ll be holding CEL in your wallet.
The US market is inconvenienced regarding reward-earning, but the rest of the world is liable to full-term benefits. Hopefully, the restrictions will be removed, and all users can benefit from Celsius benefits.
More importantly, the platform has proven itself to be secure; you don’t have to worry about investing your assets there.
Bernard currently works full-time as a growth hacker and content researcher for HUSTLR. When he was studying in the US 2 years ago, he flipped Yeezys on eBay as a side hustle to fund his degree and living expenses. He’s currently working on his Amazon FBA business & dropshipping on the side.
