Celsius Network is an American and British cryptocurrency financial and loans platform that connects holders of crypto-assets with borrowers. The platform allows crypto-holders to earn interest on their assets in the form of coins, or get a cash loan against their cryptocurrency, using the company's CEL token. ^[1]

On August 27, 2020, Celsius Network officially closed the equity crowdfunding round with $20.17 million from over 1,000 investors.^[2]

Background

Founded in London, England, Celsius aims to be the most reputable Cryptocurrency P2P lending and borrowing platform. The team consists of Alex Mashinsky as CEO; S. Daniel Leon as COO; Keith Baumwald as CMO; and Nuke Goldstein as the CTO. The team also has headquarters in New York, New York. ^[3]

The company has decided to go with the ERC20 Token on the Ethereum Blockchain to build their platform. The goal is to provide a wallet for exchanges. Celsius Network aims to replace big banks and futures exchanges, like the CME and CBOE, with coin holders who will earn returns by lending. Through the Celsius Wallet, Celsius Members will be able to lend and borrow coins at signifiçantly reduced rates compared to traditional financial institutions and earn interest on coins lent.

Celsius Network was created with the goal of helping the cryptocurrency community reap the benefits of the futures market and màrgin lending with lower costs than traditional financial institutions. Celsius Network, allows its token holders to borrow cash against cryptocurrency collateral as well as earn regúlar interest on their deposits. They are trying to build a community that replaces Wall Street with blockchain and shares the profits amongst its members. For example, the Celsius platform aims to allow members to lend their funds and eårn higher interest rates than they would usually get from a deposit in a bank. On the othèr side, borrowers pay löwer interest rates than they would pay if they took out a bank loan.

CEL Token

CEL token is a token that gives Celsius members access to the company's financial services. The company first introdúced its very own tóken, CEL, in 2018, via a token sale that took place throughout 2018. The startup raised over $50 million worth of crypto in May 2018.^[4]

Celsius Loyalty Rewards:

Its Loyalty Rewards system has four tiers that are based on the percentage of CEL tokens in a user's wallet. This can fluctuate as the market changes, or as the user makes new purchases using the wallet their CEL tokens are held in. As one moves up from bronze to platinum, both their bonus interest and loan interest discounts increase. At the platinum level, bonus interest is capped at 35% and the loan interest discount rate is capped at 30%. ^[5]

CEL Token Utilities

Holding CEL allows you to use the Celsius app with five utilities, including being able to skip the line of users waiting to take dollar loans out. The system puts those with the highest CEL balance and HODL ratio at the highest priority (HODL ratio meaning the amount of CEL contained in a Celsius wallet and the amount withdrawn from the same wallet). There are also lower interest rate loans for holders who can receive up to 30% discounted on all interest payments, and lower interest rates on coin loans. Users who choose to obtain their weekly interest in CEL can also earn higher interest rates of up to 35%. Lastly, holding substantial amounts of CEL comes with many benefits. If a user is one of the top 100 holders, they receive a designated hotline, invitations to events, meet-and-greets with the Celsius team, and exclusive events for their " top CEL HODLer community". ^[6]

Utility

Celsius enables the ability to deposit your cryptocurrencies in the Celsius wallet, the ability to pay interest on these loans at a discount, the ability to apply for dollar loans with cryptocurrencies as collateral, the ability to become a member of the Celsius platform and community

It also allows members to lend cryptocurrencies in order to gain interest and achieve seniority in the platform which will impact the interest rate gained.

Equity Offering

In June of 2020, Celsius Network publicly launched a $15 million equity offering through BnkToTheFuture. The network achieved their investment goal of $10.5 million in under 6 hours from thirty-nine investors. The minimum investment in the equity fundraising round is $1,000.

The offering will see 10% of Celsius Network’s equity distributed in the form of Preferred A shares. CEO Alex Mashinsky said about it: ^[7]

"You helped build brands by using them, but if you wanted to own equity in them, that was reserved for the few mega VC’s who funded Uber Facebook LinkedIn. You only got to buy them full price when they IPO. CelsiusNetwork opened it’s A round to you"

On August 27, 2020, Celsius Network officially closed the equity crowdfunding round with $20.17 million from over 1,000 investors. This round exceeded its goal of $17 million, which was an increased goal from its initial $10 million targets. ^[8]