Is Celsius Network a Scam? The good & the bad (Ultimate Celsius Network Review)
4-10% return on your investment annually?
That’s quite a big promise to make.
Nonetheless, that’s exactly what Celsius Network is doing.
So, in this article, I will explore the good, the bad, and the ugly so all you need to do is read this Celsius Network review and you will know:
- Pros/cons of this platform,
- How to get a start and earn interest
- And most importantly, if it’s any good?
On top of that, at the end of this article, you will know if it’s really possible to make 4-10% annually, which is more than any other platform promises.
What’s great, Celsius Network has a Promo Code where everyone who signups now – gets $20 for Free to use for the first trades.
So, even if you don’t want to use your own money to test the service.
..you can use Celsius Network Promo Code and start earning interest hassle-free.
Join Celsius Network using my referral code 181254613d when signing up and earn $20 in BTC with your first transfer of $200 or more!
In case you want to learn more before jumping on board – that’s fair.
In this Celsius Network review, we’ll review the good, the bad, and the ugly about the service.
So, let’s dig in.
What you will Learn in this Celsius Network review
So, what you will find out in this Celsius review?
Is Celsius Network scam, or an opportunity you should try?
That’s exactly what this review on Celsius Network aims to show.
Within this post, I’ll try to present you with all the information you should examine before you decide if Celsius Network is something you might want to consider as a cryptocurrency investor.
If there is just one thing, you will read, read this – here is what Celsius Network helps Crypto investors to do:
By allowing investors to lend and borrow cryptocurrencies, they open a passive income opportunity, eliminating the trading risks and negating the learning curve of becoming a cryptocurrency trader.
Sounds cool, huh?
So, let’s explore this further.
What is the Celsius Network?
The Celsius Network is a peer-to-peer lending company that facilitates borrowing and lending of cryptocurrencies.
They allow borrowers to quickly access fiat funds by putting their crypto as collateral, paying minimal interests.
For lenders, on the other hand, offer profits on interest rates for the cryptocurrencies that they have deposited on their Celsius Network digital wallet.
Before going deeper into the Celsius Network review discussing functionalities and features, let’s define how cryptocurrency lending works in general and why it could be something that you might want to give a go.
Is Celsius Network Safe and Legit?
Let’s examine the facts:
- They have a solid team
- Partnerships with Bitcoin.com, Chainlink, DaviPolk, and 20+ other companies
- On top of that, Celsius Network Trustpilot review is Great – they lack a solid amount of reviews but there are no complaints that would be a deal-breaker
- On top of that, your assets are insured by Fireblocks and PrimeTrust.
So, by examining these 4 points – the Celsius Network seems safe and legit.
But as always invest only as much as you can afford to lose 😉
What is Cryptocurrency Lending and why you should care?
All’n’all this sounds great but how can you benefit?
What if you want to make some money?
Or what if you just want to borrow some extra cash?
To answer these questions – we need to explore this further 😉
For the borrower
Let’s say you are a cryptocurrency investor and you have most of your funds locked up in crypto.
That’s a smart move, especially if you believe that the value of cryptocurrencies will, as it has until now, rise even more in the future.
But, unfortunately, an unexpected expense comes your way and you need access to a lot of fiat funds right away.
You could, of course, sell a chunk of your crypto holdings, but that you would go against your philosophy of holding on to your asset portfolio for the future.
That’s where cryptocurrency-backed loans start to become interesting. Instead of selling off your crypto, you put them as collateral and get a loan in fiat that you can repay at your own pace.
Now, like with any loan, you should expect to pay interest on the borrowed funds, but it might be a much better solution, especially if the price of your crypto assets goes through the roof in the meantime.
Paying a small interest rate might be the better option instead of selling your crypto for a low price.
In short, the borrowing mechanic allows you to conserve your cryptocurrencies while giving you access to hard cash in case you need it.
For the lender
Having covered why it might be interesting to borrow fiat using crypto-backed loans, let’s check out the other side of the spectrum.
Here’s another example: having invested a fair amount of your capital in cryptocurrencies, you want to do a bit more with them than just let them sit in your cold wallet.
Unfortunately, you aren’t savvy enough to trade them on cryptocurrency exchanges, nor you have the time to learn.
Well, that’s where crypto lending comes to the rescue.
This method allows you to lend your assets to others, and gain interest on the loan.
This way, you will be effectively avoiding the risks that come with trading cryptocurrencies, while still being able to turn out a profit from your original investment.
So, that’s borrowing and lending cryptos in a nutshell for you. You might have noticed it works similarly to the typical loans that you might take out with a bank, with the big difference that, well, there’s no bank involved here.
As a matter of fact, the Celsius Network’s goal is to give everyone the possibility to be a borrower or a lender if they have cryptocurrencies, where the company acts as a facilitator of that service.
They want to eliminate the bank in the process and redistribute 80% of their profits from interest rates within their customer base.
Without further ado, let’s go into a bit more detail about who the people behind Celsius are and the pros and cons of the platform as a whole.
The Celsius Network Team and Partnerships
One of the strengths of the Celsius Network is the people that are involved in the project.
These aren’t some no-name programmers that decided to cook up a project in their mom’s basement.
Celsius is comprised of individuals with unique backgrounds such as serial entrepreneurs, veteran businessmen, banking experts, business developers, and successful blockchain pioneers.
To begin, there’s the CEO of Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky.
He’s one of the inventors of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) with a patent dating back to 1994.
With a resume of over 35 successful projects to his name, he can be considered a successful entrepreneur as well, with two of his ventures being valued just shy of a billion dollars each.
So with that experience and knowledge, his next goal is to develop a true MOIP (Money Over Internet Protocol).
The Celsius team believes that they can disrupt the banking system using blockchain technology and that their platform will help spread mass adoption even faster.
Fingers-crossed that they do.
The Celsius Network Partnerships
Celsius is adding more and more partners to the list which helps to establish the company as trustworthy.
At the moment, there are over 30+ partners that include the following:
- Bitcoin.com
- Korbit
- VOYAGER
- PrimeTrust
- uphold
- Litecoin Foundation
- Davis Polk
- Chainlink
- and many others
More about their partnerships you can find here.
The Celsius Network Benefits
By taking the most fundamental financial service there is, borrowing and lending money, Celsius aims to decentralize and democratize it, working in the best interest of the users.
Banks take your money and charge you for handling it, only giving you a small percentage in interest rates. Then they directly lend it to other individuals, taking all the profits from the interest on the loan.
Celsius allows individuals to lend their money to others and get back 80% of the profits from the interest rates, taking the bank completely out of the equation.
It also allows them to borrow fiat, while paying very decent interest rates, putting their cryptocurrencies as collateral.
Celsius Network Pros
So here are the main advantages of the platform:
- There are no minimum deposits – this means that you can start earning interest by depositing whatever you want. They treat all of their clients equally, no matter if they deposit $5 or $5.000.000.
- Now, realistically, your profit will be proportional to your initial investment. But, at least, it’s a welcome feature to know that anyone can start earning, no matter how big their pockets are.
- Celsius Network fees – a rare, if not unseen, feature but there are no Celsius Network withdrawal fees. This means that you pay no fees when withdrawing money from Celsius Network.
- No withdrawal fees, no deposit fees, no transaction fees, no early termination fees, no origination fees.”
- Choose how to receive or pay your interests – the platform allows you to get your interest in-kind (the crypto you deposited) or in CEL tokens, the native token of the Celsius platform. If you choose this second option, you can gain up to 30% more interest.
- On the flip side, when paying interests with CEL instead of fiat, the interest rates are lower.
- No locking of your funds – This is one of my favorites. Usually, lending platforms shoehorn you into locking your cryptocurrency for a given time if you want to earn interest. Celsius does not. You can withdraw your crypto whenever you want, giving you full control of your funds at all times.
- Do you have a bunch of Bitcoin that you need to sell for some fiat? No problem! You can transfer them back to your Bitcoin wallet and do as you like. No penalties, no fees.
- No credit Check – because you are putting your crypto as collateral, you can take out a loan based on that only. Your banking history is not relevant here.
Celsius Network Cons
Although Celsius Network has lots of appealing advantages, we also discovered some disadvantages while researching for this Celsius Network review.
It can’t be all good, can it?
- Centralized wallet – The main problem when dealing with centralized networks like Celsius is that you do not own the private keys to your wallet.
- If you’ve dabbled in cryptocurrencies in the past couple of years, you must have heard the expression “not your keys, not your coins” quite often.
- Whether it is for borrowing or lending, to start using the Celsius Network you will have to deposit your valuable assets to the Celsius wallet.
- While you effectively can access it whenever you want through their mobile app, there’s no guarantee that your assets are safe from hackers.
- So, once again, invest smart 😉
- We have seen time and time again, cryptocurrency exchanges get hacked and users losing all of their funds in the process.
- Nonetheless, it’s great that your money is insured by Fireblocks and PrimeTrust.
- Margin Call and Liquidation – When borrowing fiat from the Celsius network, you are putting some cryptocurrency as collateral.
- Considering the high volatility of crypto, Celsius implements a margin call, meaning that if your collateral value drops under a certain price, they will ask you to add more to meet the minimum coverage on your loan.
- And if the price drops another threshold and the margin call wasn’t met, they might even liquidate a portion of your assets to cover for the margin call.
Now that we saw what are the pros and cons of the platform and why it can be viewed as trustworthy considering the team behind it – it’s time.
Let’s explore why you should contemplate using their services and how it works.
Is Celsius Network Safe and Your Investment Secure?
Celsius Network works with Fireblocks and PrimeTrust to secures your assets that are stored in the cold wallets of the company. Fire blocks and PrimeTrust provide insurance for the assets stored on the Celsius wallet, covering any loss.
So, that’s quite safe.
But the bad news is that most of the assets on the Celsius Network are not stored in the cold wallets but are instead placed and loaned in order for the community to gain interests.
Unfortunately, Celsius does not directly offer insurance on your loans. This means that in case of a cyber attack on your assets, losses may occur. In that event, Celsius promises to use its own balance sheet to cover customers’ losses, although their Terms of Use do not guarantee the recovery of assets in case of a hack.
How does Celsius Network’s Lending work?
To better understand how does Celsius Network works and how to earn money with lending – check the steps from below.
And here’s a quick step-by-step guide on what to do to get started:
Step 1: Visit the Celsius Network website and get the Celsius App. Download the Android or iOs Celsius app on your mobile phone and start earning interest.
Step 2: Launch the app and create an account.
Step 3: Once the Celsius app is installed, your first action before depositing will be to verify your profile. Without verification, you will be unable to use Celsius’ services.
Step 4: Fill in the required information and upload a photo of an ID piece of your choice. Once the KYC (know your customer) process has been completed and your ID verified, you can start using the different app functionalities.
Step 5: The last step to start earning is to deposit funds in your Celsius wallet. When the transfer is complete, your wallet will update itself and you will gain access to the interest-earning feature automatically.
You should be all set up to start earning, but how does this actually work? And more importantly, why should you choose Celsius for your crypto-backed loans?
Why Choose Celsius For Crypto-Backed Loans?
Well, as stated previously, there are quite a few advantages to using the Celsius Network.
The first and main one being that you start earning profits right away, with payouts coming directly to your Celsius wallet every Monday. As soon as you deposit your funds, the app will clearly show you how much crypto you have available on Celsius and the interest rates that you will be gaining.
Even before you deposit any crypto on your Celsius account, you can calculate how much you will be gaining beforehand with the nifty interest calculator on their web page.
Furthermore, Celsius supports a large variety of cryptocurrencies, giving you the advantage of directly depositing your crypto without having to switch to a major coin like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Another great thing is that no matter if you are a loaner or a borrower, your funds are directly working for the community. The company only holds 20% of the interest paid for operational purposes, while the remaining 80% that the borrowers pay is distributed to the loaners in the Celsius Network.
Additionally, you can easily switch the currency in which you receive interest through the app.
Celsius incentivizes using their native token, CEL, by giving you higher interest rates and better earning opportunities if using it instead of the in-kind currency.
Whereas, they lower the interest rates for borrowers if they choose to pay with CEL instead of fiat.
Finally, Celsius proposes flexible interest rates when borrowing fiat. These will allow you to put less crypto as collateral if you are willing to pay a higher interest rate.
When going through these key features and advantages, we can clearly see that the company stands behind its corporate message, which is to democratize crypto lending and “unbank” the user by proposing much higher interest rates than banks or even competing platforms.
Next, let’s check out how can one start relying on the Celsius Network as a good source of passive income.
Celsius Network Passive Income and Interest Calculations
And here’s the fun part – 4 to 10% annual return on your money.
If you invest 1 000 USD – each year you get up to 100 USD.
That’s more than any bank will offer.
Here’s how that’s possible.
The supported cryptocurrencies yield different interest rates, ranging from 4% to a whopping 10% in some cases.
Stable coins like the Gemini Dollar and USD Coin are likely the ones that give the best returns, going up to 10.6% annual rates.
For a new investor that hasn’t got a very diverse crypto portfolio, these coins seem to be the most interesting to stake on the Celsius platform.
There are always pros and cons though. Although you will be getting better rates, keep in mind that these are stable coins, which are pegged to the US dollar value.
This means that even though they will not lose any value if the market crashes, they will neither gain any value when other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum do.
So to cover both sides of the coin let’s check out a stable coin example and compare it with the most popular crypto out there, the Bitcoin.
How to make $25 per week OR $100 per month with Celsius Network?
In the example, our goal will be to illustrate how much you will need to invest in various cryptocurrencies in order to start getting a regular $25 payout each week (translating into 100 bucks a month).
When you head over to Celsius Network.
And head to the interest calculator, we can see that with an investment of $15.000 into Gemini Dollars (GUSD), you can start expecting a very decent ROI of $25 a week.
But that is when you choose to get your profits in the same currency, meaning the GUSD.
Where things get even more interesting, is when you choose the CEL token as your payout currency.
As you can see in the screenshot, only $12.000 are needed in order to get to the same result. This clearly shows how the company incentivizes the use of their native token.
The downside of this being that CEL is not a very popular cryptocurrency and you will have trouble finding a buyer for it in case you need to cash out quickly.
Now, let’s see how this works with Bitcoin. To be able to earn a similar amount of interest, you will need to deposit around 3 Bitcoin.
At the moment of writing, this amounts to around $27.500, which is a lot more than the aforementioned $15.000 in GUSD.
If you choose to receive your profits in CEL, you can drop the initial investment to around 2.5 Bitcoin, which is still a lot more than the $12.000 needed in GUSD. (2.5BTC = $23.000)
But, as I’ve said before, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin fluctuate in value. In 2019 alone, the price of Bitcoin has gone up more than 150%.
If you are willing to invest in more volatile crypto, the profits might be pretty considerable.
You should be the judge on how much you want to invest and if you are willing to take the risk by going volatile or play it safe with a stable coin.
Do your research before buying a cryptocurrency and do your math to avoid disappointment or loss of funds.
Pretty cool, huh?
If you take Celsius Network Promo Code, you will get a $25 bonus to test the service – you can top up any time and start earning $100 per month at any time.
So, get the bonus and start earning:
What if we dream big and go even further?
Going even further – making $1000 a month
So, how do you make $1 000 a month with Celsius Network?
Just as an example, depositing $150.000 USD in your Celsius Network wallet will result in a net $12.000 profit on a yearly basis.
Not a single bank can claim this kind of ROI, especially considering that you won’t be paying any fees and can withdraw your funds at any time.
Having that part covered, let’s check out all 4 main features of the Celsius Network Platform.
With these returns, Celsius Network is something to try.
But Note – start small – test the system and if all goes well, you can always increase the amount you have invested.
Worth a try, right?
With all this in mind – there are 4 more features that we need to review.
There are few more ways to benefit from Celsius Network.
4 Different ways to benefit from Celsius Network
So, what are the other ways Celsius Network promises to make you money?
Let’s go through them one by one.
1. Cryptocurrency Lending
When talking about making profits on the Celsius Network, this will be your main source of income.
It’s as simple as depositing some of your cryptocurrencies into your Celsius account. Once your crypto is deposited, you will automatically start receiving interest from the borrowers of the network.
As a matter of fact, the company uses your coins to lend them to people on the network and redistributes 80% of all the collected interests to the users that have deposited any funds in their digital wallets.
2. Borrowing fiat (USD) using crypto as collateral
If you’ve entered a crypto position for the long term benefits, but are in need of cash, Celsius allows you to borrow USD using your crypto as collateral.
You can apply for a cash loan, just by depositing one of the supported collateral types.
The platform proposes three different interest rates and adjusts the needed collateral accordingly. Here’s an example of getting a loan of $5000, with Bitcoin as collateral. Check out how the BTC collateral amount changes, depending on the annual payment rate (APR%).
So this is a great way of accessing some hard cash, while still being able to keep all of your crypto assets.
There’s another advantage here. Celsius only cares about your crypto collateral and has no interest in your banking history, so as long as you got your crypto, you’re good to go.
3. Celpay and its benefits
Celpay is a feature on the Celsius Network app that allows you to seamlessly send cryptocurrencies to your contacts. Where it differs from other wallets, is that it is very beginner-friendly. Here, there’s no need to install a cryptocurrency wallet beforehand or dabble with private and public keys.
The whole point of the app is to allow you to share your crypto with your friends by sending them a link with the transaction in a text message.
To redeem the coins you send them, they just need to follow the link and the instructions to install the app to automatically receive their funds.
It’s a convenient method to get novices acquainted with cryptocurrencies and Celsius so they can start earning profits themselves.
4. The CEL Token
CEL is an in-app utility token that gives Celsius members exclusive access to the best financial services for cryptocurrencies.
Not only you get better interest rates when choosing CEL as your receiving currency, but you also gain access to a different array of member-exclusive advantages, for example:
- 2% cashback on all CEL transactions when using Celpay.
- When the availability of dollar loans becomes limited, the system will prioritize users with the highest CEL balance.
This means that it can be very interesting to own some CEL if you are using the Celsius Network.
How to buy CEL tokens
Now we have reviewed almost everything.
& there’s no stone left unturned.
Except, what if you want to get some CEL tokens?
So, this is where we show how to buy CEL token and there are two ways to do it:
- Earn it as an interest
- & buy it
1. The first method to get some CEL tokens is to make the switch in your app to receive your interest in CEL tokens instead of the deposited cryptocurrency.
Simply click on your Profile photo and head over to the wallet section:
And then select to earn your interest in CEL tokens:
Boom and you’ll have em.
2. The second way is to get CEL is to buy CEL token.
Well, obviously, right?
Simply click on the “Buy Coins” button, enter your Credit/Debit Card details and finalize the transaction:
& you should have CEL Tokens a couple of minutes later.
Done.
With all of the main features out of the way, we should check out some of the competitors and weigh the pros and cons versus the Celsius Network.
Celsius Network alternatives? Celsius Network vs Nexo vs BlockFi vs Salt
Celsius isn’t the only lending platform out there.
At this point, there are more lending platforms than mushrooms after the rain..
So, we must give you an overview of what else is out there.
Although they offer some fairly advantageous rates, it’s only fair to the reader to explore the competition before making your decision on what platform suits you best.
Nexo vs Celsius Network
Nexo is a blockchain-based overdraft system that allows users to make instant crypto loans. It’s simple to use and one of the community’s favorite projects. It does have some drawbacks compared to Celsius, mainly not allowing earning interest on anything but stable coins.
Pros:
- User-friendly app.
- Quick loans.
- Interests are paid out daily.
Cons:
- Only accepts stable coins TUSD, USDC, and PAX.
- You cannot earn interest in Bitcoin and Ethereum (yet).
BlockFi vs Celsius Network
When comparing Celsius Network vs BlockFi, it is clear that this cryptocurrency lending platform also offers an interest-earning scheme similar to Celsius. User consensus is that the platform might seem a bit slow and that their KYC system is a bit invasive, sometimes even requiring a phone call confirmation for transfers.
Pros:
- Supports Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Cons:
- Requires a minimum of 0.5BTC or 25ETH before you can start earning interest.
- Monthly payout.
- The platform can be slow sometimes.
Salt vs Celsius Network
SALT, short for Secured Automated Lending Platform allows cryptocurrency holders to get cash loans against collateral of their cryptocurrencies. They accept a fairly wide array of cryptocurrencies as collateral but do not offer an interest-earning scheme.
Pros:
- Accepts 8 different cryptocurrencies as collateral.
Cons:
- No lending platform, can’t earn interest on your crypto.
Conclusion – Celsius vs. Nexo vs. BlockFi vs. Salt
I hope now it’s clear which one is the winner?
When considering these alternatives, Celsius is an obvious winner.
- Highest annual interest
- No minimum investment
- Frequent payouts
I think it’s quite obvious?
On top of that, Celsius accepts the largest number of cryptocurrencies, allows for borrowing and lending, and pays out weekly with zero fees.
Add to top it all off, you can use the Celpay app to make payments without even cashing out your earnings.
In short, we got ourselves a winner.
Wrap-up
Analyzing the company and writing a Celsius Network review was very eye-opening. Mainly because of how Celsius simplifies earning passive income.
Learning about the company’s vision and actually seeing a working product that really benefits the user is not something we see every day. Therefore, we can say with certainty that the Celsius scam is a myth.
For cryptocurrency enthusiasts that don’t have time for trading, this certainly opens an opportunity for passive income and many other advantages:
- Zero deposit or withdrawal fees.
- Great interest rates, whether you are borrowing or earning.
- Weekly payouts.
- No locking of your funds.
- A large number of supported cryptocurrencies, and the ability to earn interest rates on all of them.
- The Celpay app, aiming toward crypto mass adoption.
- No-nonsense cash borrowing, with no banks involved.
Having said all that, keep in mind that you are depositing your funds into a 3rd party digital wallet.
You have access to your coins as long as the system works, and you need to consider the risk that this involves.
As with everything that involves cryptocurrencies, remember to do thorough research prior to committing to an investment. Weigh carefully the pros and cons, and never put in more money than you can afford to lose.
That’s all folks 😉
Hopefully, this Celsius Network review has given you enough information to decide if you should consider using the Celsius Network platform.
If you are ready to give it a shot – you can get $20 bucks as a sign-up bonus by click on the button below:
FAQ Section – other questions that need to be answered
As there are a couple of questions that we couldn’t answer within the review, here’s a FAQ section that clarifies everything else.
Does Celsius Network have an Insurance Policy?
Yes, Celsius Network has an insurance policy. It’s provided by their custodians – Fireblocks and PrimeTrust. They provide insurance on assets that are stored within Celsius wallets.
Unfortunately, they do now insure your loans but the loans are collateralized meaning the borrower can take only a certain amount of what they have stored on the Celsius wallet.
What’s the Celsius Network promo code?
The Celsius Network promo code is 1375384bb3. You can use it to get a sign-up bonus of 20 USD.
You will be able to get the bonus after you deposit at least 200 USD and hold it for 30-days in your Celsius wallet.
To get the Celsius Network promo code, feel free to click here.
Is Celsius Network legit?
After using Celsius for more than 1.5 years and researching the company, Celsius Network seems to be legit. Celsius has insured the assets that are stored on the platform thanks to their custodians Fireblocks and PrimeTrust, Trustpilot reviews are great, and they have a solid team of people.
What are the Celsius Network interest rates?
Celsius Network offers some of the highest interest rates in the industry. For Paxos (USDC) they offer 11.06%, for USD Coin 11.06%, for DAI 11.06%, for Ethereum 5.79%, for Bitcoin 6.2%, and more than 30+ other cryptocurrencies.
Note, the interest rates are subject to change.