The 3 Amigos
I’m writing this to expose the current FUD against the Celsius network, so you understand what’s going on, some of the reasons why it’s happening, and the importance of Doing Your Own Research (DYOR); the most important step in any Crypto adventure.
Disclaimer; NOT financial advice and by no means conclusive or definitive research, all the information in my post is publicly available. I’m a casual observer. Furthermore I am not accusing any of the mentioned parties of anything in any way or form, I am simply disseminating their own published literature into my own words.
I own $CEL token and store them on the Celsius Network, but I am not a representative of the network nor do I speak for them in any capacity what so ever. I’m just a random Celsian defending my investment.
Any conclusions that I may question are speculatory at best, and strictly my own opinion and no one else’s. If you feel you have been misrepresented, please contact me for corrections and /or retractions.
Crypto FUD, it’s an acronym that stands for “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.” It is a strategy to influence perception of certain cryptocurrencies or the cryptocurrency market in general by spreading negative, misleading or false information.
FUD tries to manipulate common human cognitive or psychological biases that often lead to poor decisions and investment mistakes.
https://www.magellangroup.com.au/insights/10-cognitive-biases-that-can-lead-to-investment-mistakes/
Let’s start; @coryklippsten, @mikealfred, and @maxkeiser (the 3 amigos) have been using the $LUNA fiasco, the $CEL token downtrend, and a few (possibly paid) articles in industry rags, Bloomberg & Bitcoin magazine, to create FUD in the hope of scaring users away from Celsius and into their respective platforms. In the traditional FIAT sense, they are trying to induce a ‘Bank run’.
They appear to be the head of a group of FUDders going around on all of Celsius's social media channels creating FUD, and there are two obvious connections between the architects and their foot soldiers, the first is ‘El Salvador’ and the second is a referral system run by SWANbitcoin.
So who is @coryklippsten?
He presents himself as a $BTC expert and runs various Crypto & investment start-ups, including 👉SWANbitcoin👈 & @ElZonteCapital (investment fund) based in El Salvador. A frequent guest on the many Crypto Podcast, industry rags, conferences, Etc… With one simple recurring message; Bitcoin good, everything else bad.
Our focus is his Dollar Cost Average (DCA) Web app he calls @swanbitcoin, which allows you to buy $BTC and nothing else, no yield, no X-fi. It’s used to on-ramp new users into his various companies.
I want to spend a bit of time on the SWANbitcoin app, because it is the glue that holds the 3 amigos together, founded by @coryklippsten and @maxkeiser, with @mikealfred, as an investor.
It’s powered by a referral system, with users taking profit from any new user they sign up with their referral link; there is no profit generation or sharing structure, no payouts or rewards of any kind. Does it sound like a Ponzi scheme to you?
SWANbitcoin referral breakdown in their own words;
“If anyone signs up with Swan Bitcoin through your promotional link they’ll get $10 of free BTC, and you will earn 25% of their Bitcoin fees for their first year of Bitcoin purchases.
Payouts to referrers are made 30 days after the person who was referred makes a purchase or pays an annual fee.”
In those 30 days, is your ‘payout’ earning yield for SWANbitcoin?
SWANbitcoin fee breakdown in their own words;
They state; “Swan only has purchasing fees. We don’t have inactivity fees, withdrawal fees, overdraft fees, custody fees, or fees for fiat withdrawals.” But “Lowest fees require prepaid plans” and “If you are looking to purchase $100,000 or more of Bitcoin please sign up for Swan Private”
-Instant buys: “When you make an instant buy (purchasing), the fee is 1.49%. However, if you buy $5000 worth of Bitcoin within the year or are on the prepaid plan, the fee drops to 0.99%
-Recurring buys: Swan offers two different savings plans for their recurring buys. On the Pay As You Go plan, you will be charged between 1.19%-2.19%, depending on your weekly total. The annual prepaid plan drops your fees to 0.99%-1.99%”.
So you can pay your fee money upfront in return for a very small margin, but are they are pooling this fee money to earn yield for themselves?
“As an example, let’s say that you want to make a $25 weekly purchase. Using Swan Bitcoin, you only pay 1.49%-1.79%, depending on your purchase plan.”
SWANbitcoin 3rd party custodial set up in their own words;
[…]“any Bitcoin stored with us is stored in your name at a licensed and regulated trust company (Prime Trust LLC)”. So you are not dealing with just SWANbitcoin, you are also dealing with a separate US-based company their ‘custodial partner‘ who is the actual holder of your BTC and your keys. Making you obligated to two sets of Terms and Conditions (TOS) and further fees.
Let’s break that down a bit, because its complexity incarnate, by quoting directly from their TOS;
2.2 *On a daily basis, we deliver the information provided in Section 2.1 to Prime Trust, LLC, a chartered Nevada trust company (the “Custodian”), who will (a) sell to you bitcoin in the amount you requested (plus the Fee (as defined below) using your payment information we provide to it; (b) transfer the purchased bitcoin to the digital wallet created to custody the purchased bitcoin for you; **transfer a portion of the Fee to a digital wallet created to custody bitcoin for us; and (d) upon the expiration of a ***60-day lock from the date of purchase of the bitcoin, at your request, transfer the bitcoin to any other digital wallet identified by you.
2.3 For use of our Services, we charge a percentage (as displayed on the Site at the time of your use of our Services) of the purchase price of bitcoin (the “Fee”) for offering the Services and as compensation to the Custodian.
2.4 Although we provide information that indicates a price for the bitcoin being purchased, we do not sell the bitcoin or broker the sale of bitcoin. ****The entire purchase of the bitcoin is done between you and the Custodian, which may result in a different price for the bitcoin being purchased than the implied price displayed when using our Service.
https://www.swanbitcoin.com/terms/
*So SWANbitcoin does nothing, its just a web page, all the purchasing, selling, wallet creation, and storage are done by the custodian, but still charges you fees, they are also NOT liable for anything that happens to your BTC, Prime Trust is, and with Prime Trust you must deal.
**“transfer a portion of the Fee to a digital wallet created to custody bitcoin for us”
Do you think that is earning yield for SWANbitcoin?
***So for 60 days your BTC, after paying fees, has to stay in the custodian's wallet. For 2 months before you can transfer it to your own wallet.
What is it doing for 60 days, could it be earning yield for Prime Trust LLC?
****So it can’t deal with or protect you from price spread, there is a delay involved in the process, exposing you to price spread, so you may end up paying more for your BTC at the time of the actual transaction. What is a spread? When you buy or sell cryptocurrency, the spread is the difference between the current market price for that asset and the price you buy or sell that asset for.
Understand all of the above, don’t worry it's done on purpose, why? One of my very favorite authors, Cory Doctorow puts it perfectly;
Complexity is a fraudster’s best friend. Any time someone adds complexity to a proposition bet (“I’ll pay you X if Y happens”), you should assume that the complexity exists solely to obscure the true odds and rope you into a sucker’s wager.
I’m not saying SWANbitcoin or its operators are committing fraud, my point is that complexity is the antithesis of transparency, it does not build trust, and it’s a common ingredient in fraud, and referral pyramids.
A final note about Prime Trust, LLC, it’s a chartered Nevada trust company, The great State of Nevada does not have state or local capital gains taxes. No Personal income tax or corporate income tax. (No wonder casinos love the place.)
So if those custodial wallets are held in Nevada at the companies registered address, what are your tax obligations, when you transfer your BTC out after 60 days?
And if SWANbitcoin is earning yield from all the fees held in those wallets, is that a tax free break for the 3 amigos?
Oh but it’s not over, no sir, there’s still the possibility of you getting charges (more fees) from Prime Trust LLC showing up on your bank account because of a charge from another service.
So what happens if there are hidden fees in your balance and you want to find out about them, who do you talk to?
You have to chase it up yourself. You have to ask Prime Trust LLC to ‘find out’ what they are. Hidden fees are any unexpected fees that consumers get hit with when purchasing goods or services. The reason these are referred to as hidden is because the consumer might not have been expecting the charge and, in reviewing their financial data or statements, finds out they’ve incurred additional charges.
These hidden fees are on top of all the other fees.
Then there is this, “since Swan doesn’t hold your balances, any time there’s a change in balance (whether that’s buys or transfers, USD or BTC) it may take days for those changes to take effect.”
They state that “Our mission is to walk alongside you on your journey into Bitcoin, the future of money.” Apparently with their hands deep in your pockets. They further state that “withdrawals are free. We even pay the Bitcoin network fee. We think you should be in control of your Bitcoin when you’re ready. That’s it, that’s Swan.”
Look at all the above, does it look like you might actually be the product?
A few tweets, to see how this industry leader, self-styled innovator, and liberator of the unliberated behaves in a public space.
It was answered by a random Celsian
Would you buy a second hand car from this person?
So why is he/they FUDding, the answer is pure capitalism;
Compare both companies side by side, and make up your own mind, is this the reason for the FUD, the referral scheme is imploding because there are few new assets coming in the front door so the fee revenue is evaporating and the yield drying up…What do you think, is this the Unicorn that couldn’t fly?
So who is @mikealfred?
He’s a BTC Maxi and a bit of a celebrity, he fronts the advisory firm @eaglebrook, that’s behind a privacy wall, where you have to apply to qualify for his services. And he is also an investor in 👉SWANbitcoin👈
“Eaglebrook Advisors is a tech-driven investment manager that provides independent financial advisors with streamlined, secure, and compliant access to bitcoin and digital assets.” It also uses a custodial 3rd party called Gemini, a New York trust company.
@eaglebrook’s target clients;
• High-Net-Worth Individuals
• Independent RIAs
• Family Offices
• Institutional Investors
Will the on-ramping of these clients be done through the SWANbitcoin app?
I’m not going to deep dive into this one, because it operates in much the same way as any other custodial trust and has similar fee structures and regulations, and again you will be subject to two different TOS. The point is that it has fees, a lot of them like they all do.
“Item 5: Fees and Compensation
Fee for Services: For Eaglebrook’s Passive Bitcoin SMA, Eaglebrook charges a 1.00% management fee annually. The client also pays a 0.30% custody fee to Gemini annually. The custody fee will decrease as Eaglebrook scales assets on Gemini.
The client pays trading fees of between 0.00–0.10% to Gemini when they move in and out of the market. The client would be paying 1.30% annually if they make no withdrawal. In a year where the client moves funds into or out of (or both) the Passive Bitcoin SMA, the client would pay between 1.30–1.50% to include the potential trading fees into the fee calculation.”
Account Termination;
The client may terminate their Eagle brook SMA by sending an email.
Gemini charges a $125 fee for account termination.”
Here is Eagle brook’s legalese mumbo jumbo;
I originally posted this research on Twitter, and actually got a response from him, he thanked me for calling him a celebrity and then proceeded to brush me off as a ‘casual observer’. At no point did he contest, correct or verify anything I wrote. He has since deleted those tweets.
Then he blocked me, it was like getting hit by a wet lettuce leaf;
But I can still see all his tweets, I use very dark Voodo.
His speculation is directly challenged by Alex Mashinsky
His reply sounds poignant, but is it really?
Alex Mashinsky’s response
And that's where @mikealfred fades out, he's small potatoes.
So who is @maxkeiser?
Anyone in the BTC space knows of this very loud, abrasively fanatical, to the point of religious fervor $BTC maxi with 475k Twitter followers who has planted himself in El Salvador as a big-time advisor, with his partner @stacyherbert, who also swings low.
So why El Salvador, well it is one of the hottest markets for BTC uptake since they have created what they call ‘Bitcoin Law’ that makes BTC legal tender. El Salvador is peek hunting grounds for the above operations, and Keiser wants to position himself as King.
“Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert launch investment fund El Zonte Capital. The long-term Bitcoin evangelist and his wife, Stacy Herbert, have announced El Zonte Capital, an investment fund aimed at placing El Salvador at the heart of “hyperbitcoinization.”
Yes, the same @ElZonteCapital that is ALSO co-founded by… (Drum roll, please)… @coryklippsten
https://beincrypto.com/max-keiser-launching-investment-fund-for-bitcoin-startups/
https://blockchair.com/news/what-is-el-zonte-capital-could-keiser-herbert-and-klippsten-shake-the-market--91623ffce9
Keiser and Herbert have investments in 👉SWANbitcoin👈, where Keiser is also listed as a paid advisor. Is this what they call a cosmic coincidence?
Do you think @maxkeiser is using SWANbitcoin to onramp BTC users in El Salvador?
He markets himself as ‘The high priest of #BTC’, he even has his own booking agent, promoting him as a BTC Statesmen on the world's stage. A one-man hyperbole machine.
Behold, the High Priest in action;
He was directly challenged by the founder of Celsius Network, but as is typical, FUDders hardly ever reply, why? Because their FUD is based on smoke & mirrors with not one substantial fact to back them up.
All the accusations and false allegations are addressed in the following tweets linked video, again, made by a random Celsian. What you have to understand about FUD, is that once it is challenged with facts, the FUDders grow more extreme and wild, then suddenly stop, they pass like bad prune juice. Because they have no facts, no evidence to corroborate their FUD.
I presume this video was made by a fellow random Celsian, but it is a perfect example, that with a bit of due diligence and some good old-fashioned DYOR, you, yourself can see through the FUD.
That’s it for @maxkeiser he’s not worth another word. Because he has such a big audience, he has nothing but contempt for them, they mean nothing to him, just more patsies to the grind. Because FUD can hurt people, in the real world, yes it can, it can destroy lives.
So then, who are the other FUDders?
The ones, going around the social media channels posting wild and crazy accusations, like headless chickens. Perhaps some are agents working directly with the 3 amigos, some are SWANbitcoin clients, spreading FUD so as to get new user sign-ups through their referral links, then you have the ‘grudgers’, the few who haven’t DYOR and claim not to have taken everything in the AMA’s as financial advice, but actually have, even when the AMA’s clearly state it is not.
It’s the grudgers that I feel the most, because I‘ve been there, nobody likes to lose money, it’s hard to come back from that, and no referral system that will dry up as users become more Crypto savvy and better products become available, will help.
See that’s the thing, right there, the 3 amigos, will eventually hit the plateau of diminishing returns, and they know it only too well because they offer nothing that’s not already available in the market. So it’s necessary for them to harvest as many users as possible, that’s their real product, you. They only have fees, they don’t make anything, no yield, no mining, no lending, no value-added services, nothing; therefore the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, cannot continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant or begin to decline, that is why they need new users, they need your BTC.
The 3 amigos are financially therefore contractually connected through SWANbitcoin a product so basic, so generic, that it exists solely to harvest fees, that is its sole purpose because it offers nothing else, not a thing, there is no innovation here, there is no concern with community because it’s referral program forces the community to feed off each other until it all dries up and collapses.
Celsius does everything SWANbitcoin pretends to do with no nasty referral Ponzi's, charge you ZERO fees, while paying you 80% of yield back, without all those layers of complexity.
Finally to all those standing on the shoulders of the 3 amigos megaphoning their FUD, stop it, you are hurting people, you are deliberately misleading inexperienced small-time investors, by feeding them a false narrative, that’s designed to only improve the FUDder’s bottom line. You are not hurting Celsius HOLDers, we are way ahead of you, we see you.
As for the 3 amigos; you are behaving unethically, willingly spreading misinformation that may cause financial loss and stress to inexperienced traders, particularly first-timers. Creating a false narrative so you can then exploit it to your benefit. You are disgusting individuals. No polite way of saying it, you are not about community like Celsians, you are conmen. This is part of why Crypto gets a bad rap, because of operators like @maxkeiser, @coryklippsten & @mikealfred.
That’s all folks, sorry for the length, for more information on how Celsius & CelsiusX operate, go here;
For those short on time, here’s a simple run down of how they generate your weekly rewards, but please I urge you to do your own research.
Celsius network is a regulated, SEC compliant financial technology (fintech) platform that offers interest-bearing savings accounts, borrowing, and payments with digital and fiat assets. Celsius returns 80% of its revenue to network users in rewards, while the other 20% funds project expansion. This value proposition challenges conventional banking models while prioritizing the Celsius community. The Celsius Network forms an integrated ecosystem by offering its suite of products with its native CEL token alongside leading digital assets and fiat currencies. Celsius interest rates are the lowest in the industry! Starting at just 0.01% (APR), the interest rate varies based on your loan-to-value ratio, meaning that the more collateral you put down, the lower the interest rate you pay.
Peace out.
