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Celsius (CEL) is an all-in-one banking and financial services platform for cryptocurrency users. Launched in June 2018, it offers rewards for depositing cryptocurrency, along with services such as loans and wallet-style payments. Users of the platform receive regular payouts and interest on their holdings. Celsius’ native token, CEL, performs a variety of internal functions, including boosting user payouts if used as the payment currency.

Celsius originally came into being as the product of creators Alex Mashinsky and Daniel Leon in 2017. Mashinsky has a long-running history in the internet development sphere, having worked on the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) in the 1990s and other technologies since. Celsius is far from Mashinsky’s first corporate venture, with seven startups and 35 patents to his name, the project’s official website states. Co-founder and COO Daniel Leon meanwhile has experience focusing on growing early-stage startups. His previous roles include being CEO of Atlis Labs, a social recommendation and discovery app which used real-time user referrals. Celsius now has a large team of core employees, technical developers and advisors with experience in various spheres.

Celsius aims to outperform banks at their own game by offering financial services on the kind of terms which traditional financial institutions no longer offer. These include much higher rates of returns on savings and deposits, much easier and fairer loan requirements and automated rewards computed for each user algorithmically. Penalties and bank-style fees are also waived. The platform also functions as a wallet via its CelPay feature, and hosts its own CEL token which users can leverage to increase payout value among other things. As a for-profit company, Celsius takes a cut of profit margins on interest payments, still returning 80% to users themselves. The company also lends to institutional entities such as hedge funds. Payments are ensured because loans are asset-backed, and any borrower must supply more than 100% of what they borrow in the destination currency.

The native token of Celsius is CEL. It performs a number of user-related functions and is freely tradable outside the platform. CEL has a maximum supply of 695,658,161 tokens, of which 76% are in circulation and 24% are locked according to a schedule laid out in the project’s technical literature. CEL had an initial coin offering (ICO) in May 2018. The presale and crowdsale took 50% of the token supply, with 27% going to the treasury, 19% to the team and 2% to partners and advertisers respectively. CEL is an ERC-20 standard token on Ethereum.

Celsius uses a modified proof-of-stake algorithm for its token, while broader security procedures were outlined in a dedicated presentation in June 2020, still available on the company’s website. As with any client-orientated wallet, the risk of theft from attacks such as SIM-swapping is present if users themselves do not have adequate protections in place such as two-factor authentication.

CEL is a publicly-tradable token on major exchanges, with pairs available for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. As of October 2020, automated market makers (AMMs) held the lion’s share of trading volume, with popular pairs being for Bitcoin (BTC) and Wrapped Ether (WETH). New to cryptocurrency? Read our easy guide to buying Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.