Celsius (CEL) serves as a comprehensive financial and banking solution designed for cryptocurrency holders. Since its launch in June 2018, the platform has provided features like wallet-style payments, loans, and incentives for depositing digital assets. Account holders earn interest and receive regular distributions on their balances. The native CEL token supports several internal operations, such as increasing user rewards when selected as the payment method.

Alex Mashinsky and Daniel Leon established Celsius in 2017.

Mashinsky brings extensive background in internet development, having contributed to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology during the 1990s and beyond. According to the project’s official website, he has launched seven startups and holds 35 patents, making Celsius just one of his many corporate endeavors.

Daniel Leon, who serves as Co-founder and COO, specializes in scaling early-stage companies. His prior experience includes serving as CEO of Atlis Labs, a social discovery and recommendation application that relied on real-time user referrals.

Currently, Celsius employs a substantial team comprising core staff, technical developers, and advisors with diverse professional backgrounds.

Celsius seeks to surpass traditional banks by providing financial services on terms that conventional institutions no longer supply. These benefits feature significantly higher yields on deposits and savings, more accessible and equitable loan conditions, and algorithmically calculated automated rewards for every user. The platform also eliminates standard bank fees and penalties.

Functioning as a wallet through its CelPay capability, the service hosts the CEL token, which users can utilize to boost payout values among other advantages. As a for-profit entity, Celsius retains a portion of interest margins while distributing 80% back to users. The firm also extends loans to institutional parties like hedge funds. Payment security is maintained because loans are backed by assets, requiring borrowers to collateralize over 100% of the borrowed amount in the target currency.

Celsius’s native asset is CEL, which serves various user-focused purposes and can be traded freely on external markets. The token has a capped total supply of 695,658,161 units. Based on the schedule defined in the project’s technical documentation, 76% of these tokens are currently in circulation, while the remaining 24% are locked.

The initial coin offering (ICO) for CEL occurred in May 2018. During the presale and crowdsale phases, 50% of the total supply was distributed. The allocation also included 27% to the treasury, 19% to the team, and 2% each to partners and advertisers. CEL operates as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network.

The Celsius token relies on an adjusted proof-of-stake mechanism. In June 2020, the company released a presentation detailing its wider security protocols, which remains accessible on its website. Similar to other user-focused wallets, there is a danger of theft via methods like SIM-swapping if account holders fail to implement sufficient safeguards, including two-factor authentication.

Celsius (CEL) is a publicly traded token listed on major exchanges, offering trading pairs against various cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

As of October 2020, automated market makers (AMMs) accounted for the majority of trading volume, with the most common pairs involving Bitcoin (BTC) and Wrapped Ether (WETH).