Celsius Network Weekly AMA — February 26, 2021

With special guest Trunshedda W. Ramos, VP, People and Nicholas Merten (DataDash)

Another week, another AMA!

👩‍💼 Special Guest, Trunshedda and Celsius HR

The AMA opened with an introduction from this week’s special guest, Trunshedda, who runs HR for the company and what they look for when recruiting. It was mentioned that Celsius is currently recruiting over 100 people and is looking for exceptional talent to support its growth, including improved customer support with improved metrics covered in a later part of the AMA. Celsius has grown from 99 staff members in 2020 to 150 at present, excluding contractors.

On a sidenote, Alex then spent a segment to comment on the predatory nature of traditional credit cards, the dangers of compounding debt interest and how Celsius can be a solution. He then went on to provide updates as summarised below.

Later, Trunshedda also announced a new Celsius Opportunities inquiry line (as part of the Careers page on the website) to allow for talent to be able to express interest in working for Celsius. This allows Celsius to quickly assess and respond to interested candidates more efficiently.

💰 P.S. Scroll to the bottom for current Celsius promo and referral codes.

🚀 Celsius Updates

Alex ran through a number of updates for Celsius and later summarised this at the end of the AMA:

• New co-invest feature: In addition to self-insurance, swaps, credit card, and other features previously announced and in progress, there will be a new feature to allow users to co-invest with Celsius on various endeavours (e.g mining business) and will share details in due course.
• Earning additional yield with CEL: A top 10 project has chosen the CEL token which means that Celsius can start with a first deployment of $50m to generate yield. This means that there will be movement in the CEL treasury (which has been dormant for years). The CEL token will be provided as collateral to earn yield, therefore unlocking value from the pool of assets that was previously untapped.
• Earn in CEL by default: Celsius released a new v4.8 version of the app in which users earn automatically in CEL by default.
• Listing on 2 exchanges coming soon
• 🇫🇷 French website now available
• A referesher of Cel Bites (short videos) which are now available for viewing from the Celsius YouTube channel. These videos are intended to be easy to consume and shared.

📰 News Articles

• NASDAQ — Why cryptocurrency is eating the world by Alex Mashinsky
• Kitco — Bitcoin and gold taxation
• Decrypt — 1 Million Bitcoin Could Underpin Crypto Loans Within 3 Years
• Explica — More than 400 thousand bitcoins are used as collateral in loans
• Celsius mentioned on These Seven Altcoins Will Be Among 2021’s Top Performers, According to Crypto Trader Austin Arnold

📺 Special guest 2nd largest crypto YouTuber, Nicholas Merten (DataDash)

The segmented started with an introduction to Nicholas Merten, a crypto YouTube influencer with 395,000 followers on his DataDash channel. The conversation then covered various aspects of crypto:

• Predictions and where the industry is heading including a Bitcoin price prediction of $100,000 — $200,000 and expanding cycle theory.
• State of DeFi and Ethereum gas fees, scalability and Layer 2 solutions including Alex commenting that Celsius has earned over $360m of interest for its customers, by lending to market makers which takes advantage of the arbitrage between various markets including DeFi such as Uniswap, and using protocols like Aave and Compound. Alex further commented that Celsius has done more business in 2021 than all of 2020, showcasing the company’s growth.
• Celsius earning its customers yield creating a clear value proposition, especially when compared to traditional banks
• NFTs, what it is and why it is an emerging area in crypto

❤️ Community Questions

• HR-related questions: Trunshedda answered HR-related community questions including Celsius careers and team locations, applying as a University student, what makes a good customer support staff, whether compensation can be paid in crypto, how Celsius is training the customer support team and no specific policies for restricting employees owning a competitor coins.
• Alex and Zach’s personal wealth allocation and using Celsius: Both commented that the vast majority of their crypto assets are deposited in Celsius.
• Institutions borrowing BTC — what do they provide as collateral?Institutions provide dollars and borrow crypto assets from Celsius. Alex provided an example transaction with BTC and USDT and how borrowers execute an arbitrage strategy between exchanges.
• Why is Celsius registered in UK? Alex commented on the friendly nature of the UK legislation for crypto.
• Considering liquidations in Nexo, how is Celsius handling flash crashes? This referred to an incident in Nexo where positions were liquidated due to an Ethereum flash crash to $800. Alex mentioned that Celsius’ intention is to retain the customer for life and therefore avoid liquidiations. To mitigate risks, Celsius also encourages low LTV (25–30%), provides advanced notice, and uses the daily price. Celsius has less than 20 retail liquidations in the life of the company.
• Going public and whether focus shifts from customers to shareholders? Alex mentioned the importance of the business model and outlined other great customer-focused companies such as Costco and Amazon.
• Any plans to limit and increasing withdrawal fees? Celsius has already paid millions of dollars of withdrawal fees and is focused on encouraging customers to HODL rather than increasing fees or limiting withdrawals.
• Why can loans be cancelled on both sides? Traditional banks charge fees for early termination and extensions, but Celsius wants to cater for its customers’ flexible needs (“life is one giant change of plans”).
• How would you like to see Celsius run (if Alex steps down)? Alex mentioned the importance of the ethos of putting customers first, and complements the Celsius team and contribution.

Want to unbank yourself with Celsius (and get a free $30)?

• Install the Celsius app https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/137247d31d
• Use a referral code during registration: 137247d31d.
• Deposit $200 of crypto or stablecoins. You will earn $30 in BTC once you hold your deposit for 30 days.

💰 Current Celsius Promo Codes

• WEB40: Deposit $200 in any asset, get $40 in Bitcoin after 30 days (must be first promo code, for new users only).
• TRUST: Deposit $2000 in any asset, get $50 reward after 30 days.
• BANTER20: Deposit $1000 in any asset, get $20 reward after 30 days.
• USDT20: Deposit $2000 in USDT, get $20 reward after 30 days.

If you found this helpful and would like to donate to support it, you can use the addresses below or Gitcoin. Thanks! 🙂

• ETH/ERC-20: 0xF8030E71e3F5A6B0F4E3EF4324f5Dd55F4d679BD
• BTC: 3JteiJoCdF2gsTbD8YB1YBKerCCpXb5P5n