Celsius(CEL)

Co-founded in 2017 by Alex Mashinsky, S. Daniel Leon and Nuke Goldstein, Celsius is an Ethereum-based community-centric platform claiming to provide transparent and curated financial services that aren’t offered by conventional financial institutions. Its mission is to build an active self-governed community of lenders and borrowers, wherein everyone benefits from a blockchain-based efficient financial ecosystem. The platform can be used from within the web browser or through the Celsius Crypto Wallet app available for Android and iOS platforms.

Celsius’ native token CEL is based on Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard and functions as a utility token within its ecosystem. Celsius distinguishes itself by offering financial services based on terms that are no longer provided by traditional financial institutions, including low fees, fairer loans, higher returns and faster transactions. 

However, in Q2 2022, Celsius faced liquidity issues amidst the wider crypto market contagion that caused the platform to freeze withdrawals and look for potential bailouts or mergers/deals before announcing bankruptcy.

CEL price

CEL price remained below 1 cent for close to two years after its March 2018 launch. It breached the $0.1 resistance for the first time in Dec 2019, and closed the year near $0.15 level. CEL coin’s first major price surge came in September 2020, when boosted by the larger crypto market bullish sentiment, it began a 9-month long rally and peaked at an all-time high (ATH) of $8.05 on June 4, 2021. CEL’s fully diluted valuation crossed $5.5 billion on that occasion. 

According to our CEL live price chart, the token registered an overall downward trend after the June 2021 high, and its value plummeted down to $4.50 by December 31 that year. 2022 didn’t bring much cheer for the CEL price either, and it has been consistently breaching multiple support levels, under market-wide bearish pressure, and retreated further down to $0.6 and then around $0.20 in June 2022 as Celsius froze user withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy.

However, by August 2022, CEL price had moved above $2, as the community attempted to squeeze CEL shorts and help it gain upward momentum.

How CEL works

Celsius platform is powered by its native CEL (ERC-20) token which functions as the backbone of its ecosystem. It serves as the platform’s utility token, and users owning CEL are incentivized for holding it and using it for various purposes. Some of the important utilities of CEL token are:

• Borrowers can avail discounts if they choose to pay back their debt through CEL.

• Lenders who choose to accept CEL tokens as interest on their lent crypto assets can earn higher interest.

Apart from the above, CEL holders can also use these tokens to avail Premium Membership in Celsius’ tier-based loyalty program. It works as a ranking system comprising 4 different tiers – Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Your tier is determined based on your CEL token balance and each tier comes with a certain percentage of bonus interest rewards (on lent assets) and discounts on loan interest. 

Being deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, Celsius benefits from the security features of Ethereum. Its ‘Earn’ service allows users to earn up to 17% as Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on their deposited assets. Besides that, users can also borrow funds starting at just 0.1% APR. There are also provisions for sending/receiving payments, buying cryptocurrencies and swapping crypto assets using the Celsius platform. 

CEL news, updates and highlights

In a significant development for the Celsius network, the platform raised $400 million in a Series B funding round held in October 2021. The funding was obtained at a company valuation of $3 billion, and was led by the Canada-based CDPQ (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) and WestCap, a growth firm. The investment helped Celsius prove its credibility to regulatory authorities of Kentucky, Texas, New Jersey and Alabama. In November 2021, Celsius Network expanded its funding round from $400 million to $750 million as a result of oversubscription.

The next major CEL news came on June 13, 2022 when Celsius informed its community via a detailed memo on its blog that it was pausing all transfers, swaps and withdrawals on the platform due to extreme market conditions. The company claimed that it was taking the step to put Celsius in a better position to honor its withdrawal obligations, over time.  

Frequently asked questions about CEL

• Can you mine or stake CEL?

No, you cannot mine CEL tokens, however, it’s possible to stake CEL through various DeFi service providers, for consistent staking rewards.

• Which are the best CEL wallets?

CEL is an ERC-20 token and can be safely stored in any Ethereum-compatible crypto wallet including MetaMask, Trust, Ledger and Trezor wallets.

• How can I use CEL tokens?

You can stake your CEL tokens to earn staking rewards or get discounts/benefits on the Celsius platform while lending or borrowing crypto assets.

• How to buy CEL?

The ideal way of buying CEL is through established crypto exchanges where you can trade multiple assets like ADA, ETH, BTC, USDT and others, for CEL.