Hi Mathew, I have gone down this rabbit hole a few months ago and here is what I concluded. There are three main players on my radar in this space and I have an account with them all; BlockFi, Celcius, and Nexo. They all seem legit and quality companies. I was originally worried about the counter party risk of storing my crypto so I invested a large sum of funds into all three. All three companies have similar rates and offerings. Some have marginally higher rates for BTC and lower on ETH or vice versa and they occasionally change. I feel secure spreading out my risk by supporting all three companies but I think you will enjoy working with either company you choose. Alex is one of my favorite people in the Crypto revolution and he seems to be doing what he does for all the right reasons. He obviously does not need the money and wants to contribute to humanity. Celcius will continue to thrive because of the way he looks out for his customers. I don't hold and CEL tokens but I am buying some after this interview!

You are correct in that the alternatives pay in kind. As to which you should go with, if you enjoy paying fees, Blockfi or Nexo is fine. If you don't like paying fees and want to keep more of your money, Celsius is the obvious choice.

Thanks, Tom. Welcome to the platform!

Me too

Timothy, Serious question: Is there a term you prefer to bitcoin maximalism? For example, how would you describe yourself?

"Why hold your coin for a paltry 10% when I can get better yield on my underlying?" How average Joe can generate better yield on BTC ? By 100x leverage shorting on Bitmex or Binance? Or maybe by farming sushi ? If you know the way hpw to generate with higher yield on your BTC with similar risk or effort - please share it. I think I am not the only one here who would like to learn new ways how to earn few extra bucks. „Did he just say that as massive demand comes in for a deflationary coin that the upside will be capped? Did he really utter those words? (Yes he did, around 46min 13sec time mark) -- that isn't going to age well.” No, what he said is that “ as BTC become more and more as form of payment that means that upside will be capped”. One of a core features expected from the form of payment is low volatility- you do not want to transact with asset that can drop 10% in 40 minutes or 40% in one day. So in other words, it means that BTC become widely adopted form of payment only if it lose its volatility, capped volatility = capped potential for growth. There is no high growth potential without volatility.

You do not need CEL token to earn 10.5% on Celsius Network. You do need to do KYC/AML so we all stay compliant and part of the system Giving depositors 80% back is what every investor should expect from a company acting in their best interest. We do that and charge NO FEES.

@Ash -- I'd describe myself as a Bitcoin realist. What does that mean? It means I only stay with the top dog as long as those metrics prove themselves, month to month. The very moment I sense there's something wrong, I shift elsewhere. Its served me well, I was able to avoid the Mt Gox disaster primarily because I was watching metrics for withdrawals, they signaled trouble months before the exchange itself imploded. It also has served me well for not investing in sketchy projects that promise large returns for little to zero effort. People have this viewpoint -- thanks to the "maximalist" slur that Vitalik invented - that people in Bitcoin stay regardless of what happens. That is utterly wrong in my case, as I view it as a trade and when the trade no longer makes any sense for me - I'm out. There is a long tail to failed projects in this space, and it looks like with pending legislation that stablecoins in addition to this ERC-20 token will be one of them.

Timothy P., I'm noticing a pattern in your comments. I'm just a lowly community member, but I'm asking you to please reconsider the ongoing barrage of vitriolic commentary on almost every video. A lot of people are here trying to learn some things, are interested to listen to the diverse perspectives presented by the guests who have offered up their time and experience, all of which by the way have been offered to us 'for free'. Democratization of good insight and information is clearly part of the mission. Have you heard the expression "don't look a gift horse in the mouth"? I humbly suggest you take that expression to heart. Good criticism is of course welcomed, and it seems you have some real experience that could add value. But not unless a basis of respect is maintained. Many of us are here because it is a serious and intellectual refuge from the banal toxicity that has become normalized almost everywhere online in the most insufferable ways. Please respect that 'consensus'. If you cannot, there are many other places to go online and chat away without any restraint whatsoever.

@TH - You want to police my posts? Who gave you that right? If you disagree, then downvote like the others and move on. Are people so afraid of contrary thinking that they can't bear to read it? Then its their loss. I won't apologize for having an opinion and articulating it. Ever.

I have down voted.

here is my answer https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/celsius-network-partners-with-chainalysis-to-confirm-audit-of-3-31-billion-in-assets-1029878591https://www.kitco.com/news/video/show/Market-Analysis/3119/2020-12-02/Bitcoin-price-to-retest-$15000-says-Alex-Mashinsky-who-called-all-time-highs-in-2020#_48_INSTANCE_puYLh9Vd66QY_=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kitco.com%2Fnews%2Fvideo%2Flatest%3Fshow%3DMarket-Analysis

LOL, I love this thread! This is awesome! Keep voicing your opinions! I gave you a thumbs up! @Timothy Just to add I believe that bitcoin is really the true and only decentralized asset out there. Everything else is usually a project run by someone and definitely has that chance of failing, so I agree with you on that. HOWEVER, personally I love learning about projects and exploring crypto. It's really amazing and one of the best ways for me to learn about them is to get my feet wet and try a bit of everything. I never go all in. But I do invest a little with CEL. I'm actually a big Fan of Alex Mashinsky and do respect and use Celsius!!!!! Just had to say. My bitcoin holdings are in cold storage, but most of my alt coins are in the CEL app and I choose to earn in cel tokens. In my opinion, if anyone is just looking to hold bitcoin as an asset, then hold bitcoin in cold storage and forget about it. But if you're interested in earning Yield, Mashinsky offers a great app! In addition to earning yield by leaving your coins in a 'high interest savings account', there are also other options outside of CEL/BlockFi/Nexo... You can be a Liqudity Provider on Uniswap and earn yield (a piece of the transaction fee), you can stake coins on Binance (earn yield but coins are locked up for a specific time), you can stake coins that produce tokens which you can use to earn more yield (yield farming), and there are protocols like Melon Finance which allows you to create your own hedge fund and trade other people's crypto if people choose to invest with you and you make the MER (management expense ratio) fees. These are just a few of the many different projects out there. Will they all last and be super successful?? No, I definitely don't think so. But is it worth learning about and maybe trying out with a little bit of money? HELL YEAH!! The top 10 tech companies of the dotcom bubble are definitely not the same as the top 10 right now, but that doesn't mean we should just give up on all tech companies or have a hatred towards them. companies don't' have feelings. And as such, Crypto projects don't have feelings. I don't have a hatred towards any company. And I know there is a chance most of these companies might not make it. But hey, it's exciting to get your feet a little wet and LEARN! (clearly I learn by experimenting lol)

This video is on it's own and may get put onto Real Vision's Youtube channel on a future date.

Great question. We can safely say it wasn't from the treasury because you can go look at the treasury address and see if any amount was liquidated.

This is a good question. Maybe he will answer it in an upcoming AMA. He may have already answered it for all we know.

We hold over 250,000 ETH from customers and add more every day, the 25,000 ETH2 contribution (10x more than Vitalik did) is designed to increase the yield so we can raise the interest we pay you for your ETH.

Thanks for your response Alex. Reading between the lines, I see that the answer is yes, customer ETH deposits were used for the ETH2.0 staking. My assumption is that your Risk team assessed that there is very little chance that Celsius ETH depositors will attempt to withdraw 90% of Celsius ETH deposits at once anytime in the next two years. Reasonable assumption. If that does happen, Celsius would have to use some of their Treasury funds to buy ETH on exchanges. Probably not the end of the world.

I believe it.

Woo Woo !!!

Everyone like this so we can get an answer.

We have over $700m in CEL and over $100m in cash because we are profitable, when we will sell CEL has to do with our cash needs and fair market value (we don't think we are there yet :) )https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/celsius-network-partners-with-chainalysis-to-confirm-audit-of-3-31-billion-in-assets-1029878591 CEL is still not growing as fast as our AUM (this number excludes our Treasury)

Can you share that video please. Cant find which one on NN. Just curious. BlockFi seems to be doing the same deposit/earn deal. I was looking at them before watching this nice piece. Can't tell... but BlockFi definitely wont pay you interest in CEL lol. My guess is they will roll it back into whatever coin you deposit, compounding interest. Which Celcius will too. Did you happen to research BlockFi? Alex alone seems like a reason.

Just curious. BlockFi seems to be doing the same deposit/earn deal. I was looking at them before watching this nice piece. Can't tell... but BlockFi definitely wont pay you interest in CEL lol. My guess is they will roll it back into whatever coin you deposit, compounding interest. Which Celcius will too. Did you happen to research BlockFi? Alex alone seems like a reason.

BlockFI is designed to make money off fees, credit card charges, and old bank tricks that make their customers poorer. And the continuous censoring and ccp behavior is worth closing the account over.

I agree. Nothing makes me go to sleep faster than hearing people talking about bonds and similar topics.

worth watching every minute, rewinding certain parts, rewatching multiple parts, and very few parts worth 2x speed.

@Richard I will try to explain it altough I am not a Celsius team member just a customer and investor. In case of retail loans ( speaking from personal experience with Celsius) your LTV is maximum 50% or in other words you need to deposit collateral minimum 2x higher than your loan. I believe the same principle exists on institutional loans side. So in this mentioned by you, particular case, collateral should be 40K USD and somwhere around 30K USD per 1 BTC - Celsius will contact borrower with margin call and ask: -to raise collateral -to pay back part or entire loan I think this 50% LTV secures enough time to act and protect depositors - in Celsius case mostly retial community members. This is a personal note but I am continiously amazed how Alex managing to atract and mantain great people on every level of organization. I received a margin call during March BTC squezee and the way Celsius stuff handled that was superb. Experience was more like very friendly conversation between equall partners. I have no clue how they managed to conatct personally in every case, during those crazy days but they did. There might be a challenge to scale it in the future but there is unique value in such attitude. It builds trust and relation and in long terms, in service business those two words means low churn and great word of mouth promotion.

Hi Richard, I have explained the mechanics of Celsius Network in this article: https://celsiushub.com/article/celsius-network-how-it-works-and-why-it-works-1606079781079x463172246308913150

why?:)

I can assure you it is all natural :) my wife prefers salt & pepper but it refuses to come out.

^ Alex, dude, you're reading these boards? Awesome.

The Machine is everywhere. Alex you must never sleep.

Yes numbers does not lie, however once you get in to the details it makes all the sense in the world. Concentration is so high because only 6% of all available tokens are stored outside of the Celsius app/system, what means that staggering majority of Cel token hodlers is generating yield on their assets and no willing to sell their tokens ( at least at current prices). When you add to this exponentially growing number of depositors ( majority of them prefer to earn interests in Cel if available) and fact that Celsius week by week have to buy back Cel tokens from the market ( to pay interests) you got recipe for token supply squeeze with rapidly expanding demand. If from any reason growth number of users flattens, Cel token should appreciate due to the growth of whole Crypto market capitalization. While value of crypto deposited in Celsius grows in USD value Celsius will have to buy more Cel tokens to pay weekly interest, more demand for tokens means… So Cel token is kind of a hedge, regardless if Celsius will grow its AUM or we will have bull run on BTC price - Cel token should appreciate. In case of both ofit happened at the same time Cel token should appreciate even more. In fact, this is exactly what happened in last 12 months when Cel token rocketed form 5 cents to 2,5 USD…

Celsius Treasury is half the tokens and we did not sell any since ICO, the 250,000 depositors all hold in one wallet so your analysis does not mean it is so concentrated. Yes most coins are deposited with Celsius.

Please open your yes Mark and see through the charade.

Celsius has close to $100m in XRP and supports the Spark token...

I deposited BTC, USDC and CEL in Celsius and collecting weekly interest, for example rates for this week are respectively 4,51% APY ( BTC); 10,51% ( USDC) and 5,12% ( CEL). However in case you decide to collect your interest not in kind ( e.g BTC on BTC, USDC on USDC) but in CEL tokens you can reach even 5,73% for BTC and 13,86% on USDC. Certainly option to earn in CEL must by available in your jurisdiction. For me it worked exceptionally well, since CEL appreciated massively (almost 5000%) in last 12 months - USD value of collected interests (on BTC and USDC) right now has higher value than the principal... I do not expect of Cel to repeat last year’s growth in next few years, however in my opinion CEL should outperform BTC, also in worst case you are only risking interest - so Sharpe’a ratio is exceptional here. I also took BTC collaterized loan in Celsius. Initially I tried to take it via BlockFi ( in Celsius at that moment loans were not available in my country), but once I went trough the loan agreement and found “2% orgination fee” ( not communicated and not illustrated in loans calculator available on the website ) I resigned. Eventually, after some time I took two loans with Celsius, paid back early one and extended the other and everything worked flawlessly. Both Celsius and Blockfi are in opinion equally credible and complaint. Please bare in mind that I might be biased, I participated in Celsius ICO in 2018 and I still hodl Cel tokens - so as always, please do your own research.

Celsius has the best rates + Alex is seriously doing good for the depositors. 80% of the interest profits they make from lending to the institutions are pushed right back to the depositor. This means Celsius will always have the best rates in the industry... not to mention... they are available in NY State!

I'm curious, how would I get my dollars into Celsius if I didn't use a bank?? Every method of moving my money I earn goes through a bank before it can be transformed into crypto. Thanks

Jerry V, you have a few options, P2P trading and crypto ATMS, You also have cashapp which let's you top up at Wallmart. Paypal is another option.