Celsius PriceCEL

What is Celsius (CEL)?

Celsius (CEL) is an ERC-20 utility token that operates on the Ethereum platform. It was issued by Celsius Network LLC, a cryptocurrency company headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States, with offices in four countries. Celsius Network was a centralized finance (CeFi) loan provider and retail savings platform offering interest-bearing and borrowing accounts with a fiat on-ramp. The system was built around the native CEL token, which allowed users to get loans, make payments, and receive rewards. The company described its mission as providing secure financial services while doing what is best for the community rather than middlemen, and stated an aim to return 80% of its income to customers through increased savings and borrowing profits. CEL launched in March 2018 with an initial supply of 650 million tokens. Following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in July 2022 and a subsequent restructuring, Celsius Network wound down its operations, and on April 30, 2024, it burned the entirety of its CEL holdings, eliminating 94% of total supply and reducing the remaining token supply to 40.6 million CEL.

Key Specifications & Tokenomics

• Name: Celsius
• Ticker/Symbol: CEL
• Token Standard: ERC-20
• Blockchain Platform: Ethereum
• Contract Address: 0xaaaebe6fe48e54f431b0c390cfaf0b017d09d42d
• Category: Centralized Finance (CeFi), Lending, Utility Token
• Initial Supply: 650 million tokens (March 2018)
• Maximum Supply: 695,658,161 tokens, with 27% allocated to the treasury
• Supply After Burn: 40.6 million CEL (April 30, 2024)
• Official Website: https://celsius.network/
• Company: Celsius Network LLC, founded 2017, private company
• Industry: Finance, Cryptocurrency

Who created Celsius?

Celsius was founded in 2017 by Alex Mashinsky, Daniel Leon (also referred to as S. Daniel Leon or Shlomi Daniel Leon), and Nuke Goldstein (Hanoch "Nuke" Goldstein). The project originated when Alex Mashinsky and S. Daniel Leon noted the plan on a napkin. Key people associated with the project included Alex Mashinsky as chairman and former CEO, Nuke Goldstein as CTO, Rod Bolger as former CFO, and Aslihan Denizkurdu as COO. Alex Mashinsky submitted a letter of resignation on September 27, 2022, months after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a later regulatory action, Alex Mashinsky, Shlomi Daniel Leon, and Hanoch "Nuke" Goldstein were ordered to pay a total of $16.5 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges.

How does Celsius work?

The Celsius network relied on two components to function: the Celsius platform and external exchange markets. The Celsius platform was responsible for facilitating secure trading and regulating the fees involved, while external exchange markets processed the trades and acted as liquidity providers. Depositors earned interest by depositing qualifying cryptocurrencies, with rates depending on the cryptocurrency deposited. Borrowers paid between zero and 8.95% on bitcoin-backed loans, depending on the loan-to-value ratio. Celsius generated revenue from token sales, lending, bitcoin mining, and discretionary trading of cryptocurrencies, and claimed that up to 80% of its revenue was returned to its user community through interest payments. The company did not charge fees to its users. Some of the money Celsius used to fund loans came from hedge funds seeking higher yields than banks pay. Celsius was also a Bitcoin mining company, and the reorganized mining business formed following emergence from bankruptcy is Ionic Digital LLC.

What makes Celsius unique and valuable?

Celsius positioned itself around a community-first mandate, returning 80% of its income to customers through increased savings and borrowing profits while taking a 20% cut of profit margins on interest payments to fund expansion. According to its whitepaper, Celsius aimed to legally replace Wall Street with blockchain and reclaim control over the credit flow. The platform allowed individuals to unbank themselves and was designed for access to fair, rewarding financial services. At its peak, Celsius reported significant scale: as of May 2022, it had lent out $8 billion to clients and held almost $12 billion in assets under management. The network reported over one million registered members, had loaned $25.2 billion in assets, and had distributed over $929 million in yield rewards. Celsius was also a major buyer of its own token, with Arkham Intelligence estimating it spent $350 million on CEL purchases since July 2019.

What is Celsius used for?

CEL is an Ethereum ERC-20 utility token that allowed users to get loans, make payments, and receive rewards. Borrowers used Celsius coins to access the ability to take out a loan with cryptocurrency as collateral and could earn rewards for depositing their CEL tokens for lending. The company paid interest in cryptocurrencies, including in its own CEL token. Depositors could earn interest on qualifying cryptocurrencies, while borrowers accessed fiat loans backed by crypto assets. The token also served as a mechanism for the company's buyback activity, as Celsius bought CEL interest it owed to customers on the open market. Popular conversion pairs for CEL included CEL to AUD, BRL, CAD, EUR, GBP, HKD, RUB, SGD, TWD, and KRW.

How Is the Celsius ecosystem developing?

The Celsius network began as an Ethereum-based platform but later incorporated Cardano into it and integrated Tezos in December 2021. Celsius launched its mobile app in June 2018 and its wallet in early 2019, enabling users to deposit coins as security for loans in dollars and lend crypto to earn interest. The company expanded its operations over time, reporting $3.31 billion in assets under management in December 2020, more than $4.5 billion in January 2021, and over 400,000 users with $9 billion in community deposits by February 2021. However, the ecosystem faced severe disruption. In June 2022, Celsius paused withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts, and on July 13, 2022, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On January 31, 2024, Celsius emerged from Chapter 11 as part of a restructuring plan involving the distribution of assets, including a newly created bitcoin mining company, to creditors, and wound down its operations. Claim distributions to eligible creditors began on February 1, 2024, and the mobile and web apps were shut down on February 29, 2024.

How to mine Celsius?

CEL is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network and is not mined through proof-of-work. Instead, tokens were issued and distributed through the project's initial coin offering and platform operations. Celsius Network itself operated as a Bitcoin mining company as part of its business activities. Users could earn CEL rewards by depositing tokens for lending and could receive interest paid in CEL. Following the April 30, 2024 burn event, which eliminated 94% of total supply and reduced the remaining token supply to 40.6 million CEL, no further mining or issuance mechanism for CEL is described in available information.

How to keep your Celsius Coin safe?

Because CEL is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network, it can be stored in wallets that support Ethereum-based assets. CEL can be bought, sold, managed, and traded directly in MetaMask, and it may be available for swapping via onchain decentralized products. When handling any cryptocurrency, standard security practices apply: use reputable wallets, safeguard private keys and seed phrases, verify contract addresses before interacting with tokens, and be cautious of phishing attempts. Given the history of Celsius Network, including its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the shutdown of its mobile and web apps on February 29, 2024, and regulatory actions, users should exercise additional diligence and rely on self-custody solutions where possible. A Claims Portal and Distribution FAQ were maintained for creditors with questions related to claim distributions.