Celsius Network Weekly AMA– December 25, 2020
With Alex Mashinsky and Zach Wildes, Community Manager
This week’s AMA begins with some updates from Alex, followed by community questions. As always, the timestamp from YouTube is hyperlinked to each question below.
Summary: Alex starts off with the exciting news that CEL token will be listed on a major exchange in February. Furthermore, not only is Celsius not paying any listing fee, but this exchange will be paying Celsius, who of course will pass on 80% to the community. Celsius also announced that they are partnering with mining firm Argo to mine Bitcoin, will start having income in Bitcoin and will buy CEL token with half of the profits. Alex said that Celsius plans to be the second or third largest miner in North America by the end of 2021. Additionally, Alex mentioned that as previously announced, users will be able to take loans against the total value of all assets instead of just one asset at a time, and this is planned to go live in February.
Although Celsius is always finding yield, they’re doing it while complying with regulators. The SEC’s recent announcement means that Celsius doesn’t need to worry about security status of coins and tokens for the next five years (including XRP) while the SEC rules on the security status of many of these offerings. Celsius is also planning to partner with many smaller banks to access their customers and services, while ensuring they are still acting in the best interest of their customers. And you may have noticed a new tax tab in the app, which allows you to select how to receive your 1099—go select “paperless” and save some trees. 🌳
Looking back, although this year has been tough for many reasons, it’s amazing to see how much Celsius has grown. A year ago, CEL token was at $0.14 and Celsius had ~$550 million in Assets Under Management (AUM). Now, CEL is above $5 and AUM is above $4 billion. Celsius has had $266 million in net deposits in the last 30 days (crazy growth), just crossed 50,000 BTC held, and has paid out over $146 million in interest in total. It’s been a wild ride, and the future looks even brighter.
And scroll to the bottom for current Celsius promo codes (free money), sign-up guides with referral codes for both Celsius and Coinbase (more free money for new users), and my Gitcoin grant (support these write-ups).
Updates with Alex
- CEL token on a major exchange. I can’t announce who it is yet, but in February CEL token will be coming to a major exchange—and this exchange agreed to pay us. We’ve proven that you can be a Top 20 cryptocurrency by focusing on your community first, without being on a major exchange, and everything else will take care of itself.
- Higher rates for international users! Earn 6.2% on BTC for platinum users, and this matches our rate for US users on their first 2 BTC.
- $146 million in interest paid to date. No one else is even close to paying their community the amount that Celsius has paid. Celsius made all of the right moves—you’ve been hearing recent news about teams like Ripple making legal mistakes in the past, but Celsius from the beginning has required KYC, and filed a Reg D with the SEC—helping us avoid some of the issues that others are having.
- Putting things in perspective. Celsius is about to cross 50,000 BTC held, making us the fourth largest holder of bitcoin in the world. 365 days ago, CEL token was at $0.14 and Celsius only had ~$550 million in Assets Under Management. Today, CEL token is above $4 and our AUM is above $4 billion. Also, in the last 30 days, we had a net $266 million in deposits, which is crazy growth!
- Diversifying Celsius’ income. Historically, Celsius has made income from lending to institutions and exchanges and from DeFi, but now we are adding mining as well. We partnered with Argo, as well as other companies, and will start receiving income in January in Bitcoin, and with half of that we will be going to buy CEL token. We also have new strategies in DeFi and are making even more money there now. By the end of 2021, we will either be the second or third largest miner in North America.
- Some clarity from the SEC. Just this week, the SEC provided some clarity about security tokens and exchanges. At the same time, they are starting to go after security tokens that were sold directly to US consumers. Celsius has always worked hard to be compliant with SEC regulations and other regulatory bodies—which is why regulatory crackdowns are bad for many other tokens and coins, but good for Celsius.
- Will Celsius need to delist XRP? No, what the SEC said is that they’re suing XRP, but at the same time if exchanges or brokers are doing everything legally, then don’t worry about what’s happening right now — so Celsius can keep XRP for now but may need to de-list in the future.
- Celsius success stories. If you’ve got a great story about how Celsius has helped you move closer to financial freedom, email kim@celsius.network and she can schedule a recording with you. We love hearing from our community about how we’ve helped change your life.
- A new CELionaires list? We know the community is debating whether to expand the Top 200 list once everyone is millionaires—it used to be just the Top 100, then the Top 200, so I think it makes sense to keep expanding it to include all of our millionaires!
Community Questions
Q: Is there a limit to how much I can take in loans?
Alex: No—you want a $20 million loan? No problem.
Q: Would is be possible to earn both in CEL and in kind?
Alex: Soon in the US we’re launching earning in CEL for accredited investors, but for now it’s too difficult to do different percentages, although we are working on this.
Q: Do you think they’re going to have a new Bretton Woods and start a new financial system?
Alex: Even if they do have a new Bretton Woods, all governments and central banks are printing as quickly as possible, which is why we’re not feeling it.
Q: Could you please tell us more about the mega deal that you mentioned before?
Alex: I’ll announce it when I can announce it! But look back to previous deals we’ve made—just like we made a deal with LINE, who has 600 million users, and no one is talking about that, but we have another deal with a company that has several hundred million users. We’re trying to get to 100 million users for Celsius, and you’re not going to get there without working with some major partners.
Q: When I take a loan with BTC as collateral, do I stop earning interest on it?
Alex: Yes, we are able to make money on your loan because we lend out your collateral.
Q: Will Alex be joining the Twitch stream and playing games next week?
Alex: I won’t, but I think two of my sons will be—I’m not much of a gamer.
Q: Alex, when do you anticipate the SEC will give the 5-year safe harbor go-ahead to crypto firms?
Alex: I think they kinda already did, so I don’t know, maybe 30 days? I don’t see the new administration killing this in any way—but this is big news for us because now we know for five years we won’t have any issues.
Q: Is it possible to add my wife or child as a beneficiary to my account?
Alex: We’re working for a way to add that, but what matters more is the law in your jurisdiction—what’s most important is your will and things like that being set up correctly, not any box that you check in the Celsius wallet.
Q: At what price will the team receive more tokens?
Alex: $3, $5, $10, and $15—we basically took all of the tokens that were originally going to be released at $3 and broke them up into four batches.
Q: Can you use more than one coin to borrow for a single loan?
Alex: That is coming in the future, but right now you are required to use only a single coin as collateral. I think this should be coming in the February release.
Q: Can we expect a card partnership with Amon?
Alex: We’re looking to launch our own card eventually—and we want for it to be the best card possible, with no hidden fees or anything like that.
Q: Can you explain the new tax tab that was added to the new version of the app?
Alex: We have to issue 1099s for all US users, and we are partnering with a firm that will automatically allow you to add this information to your tax return. And in a few weeks we’re going to have a crypto-specialized tax firm come talk to us, which should be really helpful.
Q: What do you think the next wave of high-performing assets will be?
Alex: I’m focusing on digital economy stocks, gold, and crypto. I don’t have any bonds, though.
Q: At what point would you believe you’ve reached the end goal of Celsius Network?
Alex: We’ll never be done—I’m dedicating the rest of my life to this. We’re trying to take the power from the banks and give it back to the people by creating a financial system that always acts in the users’ best interest.
Q: Do you think traditional banks will target Celsius once you start to take their customers?
Alex: We’re looking to partner with smaller banks that want to use and offer our services—we want to help show them the light by acting in their customers’ best interest.
Q: Is Celsius still profitable? What is the key to Celsius profitability?
Alex: Yes, we’re still very profitable. Mainly, we have a large enough asset base that we’re more easily able to cover our costs while still paying so much back to our users.
Q: Will Celsius support fiat deposits?
Alex: You can make a fiat deposit today—in the countries where it’s supported you can make ACH and SEPA deposits that are immediately converted to stablecoins or other assets. We cannot hold fiat though because we are not a bank.
Q: Is Spark affected by this XRP drama in any way?
Alex: No, Spark is their own entity, they just did the airdrop to the XRP community. But we’ll have to wait and see how their blockchain turns out.
Q: Do you plan to keep half of all CEL tokens in the treasury forever?
Alex: We’ve already started to use them as collateral or for some of our operations, but you can track the balance of this wallet publicly here. When we start to sell some CEL token, then that’s probably a good sign that we think it’s reached fair value.
Q: How do I convince my wife to create a Celsius account?
Alex: Gift her some BTC or ETH or CEL—my wife didn’t want anything to do with crypto initially, so I gifted her some to get her to take it more seriously and see how it works.
Q: Do you have any updates on Proof of Community?
Alex: We’re actively developing it, and are looking to essentially create a real-time audit that is available at all times.
Q: With Coinbase’s IPO announcement, will Celsius do an IPO in 2021?
Alex: It’s great to have a trailblazer open the gate for you—sometimes it’s great having someone like Coinbase doing this to spend the money to educate the public and make things easier for someone like us. Celsius has just over $4 billion in AUM, and Coinbase has $25 billion—so we have a ways to go, but we’ll see.
Want to unbank yourself with Celsius (and get a free $20)?
- Install the Celsius wallet (https://celsius.network/get-the-app/)
- Use a referral code during registration (137247d31d)
- Deposit $200 of crypto or stablecoins
You will earn $20 in BTC once you hold your deposit for 30 days
Click here for a step-by-step guide for onboarding with Celsius, and here for my onboarding guide for Coinbase.
Current Celsius Promo Codes
- WELCOME20: Deposit $20 in any asset, get $20 reward (must be first promo code, for new users only).
- WEB30: Deposit $200 in any asset, get $30 reward (must be first promo code, for new users only).
- BTC: Deposit $2000 in BTC, get $30 reward.
- TRUST: Deposit $2000 in any asset, get $50 reward.
If you find my work helpful and would like to donate to support it, you can use the addresses below or find my Gitcoin grant here. Thanks! 🙂
- ETH/ERC-20: 0xF8030E71e3F5A6B0F4E3EF4324f5Dd55F4d679BD
- BTC: 3JteiJoCdF2gsTbD8YB1YBKerCCpXb5P5n
