Celsius Network Review: All versions deep dive

In this Celsius Network review, you’ll learn that Celsius Network is a crypto-based money management service where you can earn interest on your cryptocurrency and stablecoins. Additionally, Celsius Network also provides low interest loans and can be used to transfer money between Celsius wallet users.

I was very skeptical at first because SO MANY people recommend Celsius and their CEL token has been pumping continuously. I have full FOMO so I wanted to do research to see if Celsius was legit rather than people promoting it due to the Celsius referral bonus. That’s why you’ll see in the Celsius crypto review that they are a legitimate wallet but there are restrictions to many countries.

Between most of the reliable interest earning crypto platforms, Celsius Network is the most generous when it comes to low interest rates for loans, high interest earning on your crypto, and their sign up bonus. This terrifies me. Because the company is promising a lot and it seems they are offering way more than the competitors. This makes me question how sustainable their business model will be in the future and how safe my money is with them.

Celsius Network Pros:

• Sign Up Bonus: $20 with my referral code 15774035eb (must deposit $200 and keep it in the account for 30 days)
• Lowest interest rates loans at 1% (not available to US Citizens)
• Highest interest earning rates on cryptocurrency and stablecoins for US citizens (without needing platform tokens)

Celsius Network Cons:

• U.S. users can’t gain interest in CEL, get loans, buy coins, or use CELPay (workaround)
• Available as an APP only
• Transactions cannot be seen in the app. They
• You need the CEL platform token for the best rates (international users only)
• Interest earning rates vary by location

Celsius Crypto Earning Rates

The interest you can earn on your crypto with Celsius depends on your location. The general earning rates for the United States are actually pretty high compared to the international rates because US residents are “not allowed” to buy CEL tokens.

For the most up to date Celsius Network rates, please see this link. These are Celsius crypto earning rates for the United States (just a sample because the list is really long):

Signing Up

When signing up for Celsius Network, you can only sign up through the mobile app. Celsius does not have a website to manage your account and everything has to be done through the app.

During the first step of the sign up process, you have the option to add a referral code at the bottom of the page. My referral code is 15774035eb which gets you $20 in BTC after depositing $200 and keeping it in your account for 30 days. If you forget to use the promo code during the sign up process, you can add it as a “promo code” in your account later. But you’ll need to add the referral code before depositing any money to be eligible.

Celsius is very strict about knowing who their users are. You will have to go through the KYC (Know Your Customer) process and provide your identification, address and other personal information. As a US citizen, I was also required to provide my Social Security Number. You will also need to provide a picture of your identification taken through the app. The KYC identity process for Celsius Network applies to every country they operate in so you can’t make any ghost accounts.

Add the referral code during the 1st page of the sign up process: 15774035eb

Account Verification

How long does it take for your account to be verified by Celsius? Celsius claims that accounts will be verified in 24 hours or less. In my experience, I found that the verification process was completed in less than 2 hours. For myself as a US Citizen and for my wife as a Taiwanese citizens, both of our accounts were verified very quickly.

During the sign-up process for my Taiwanese wife, she initially used her Taiwanese passport and it failed Celsius’ identity verification process in less than 2 hours. She resubmitted her identity with a national ID card and less than 2 hours later was approved for her account.

Celsius Network Sign-Up Bonus

The Celsius Referral bonus gets you $20 in BTC after depositing $200 to your Celsius wallet and leaving it in there for 30 days. If you’d like to use my referral code, it’s 15774035eb. You will need to add the Celsius referral code during the 1^st page of the sign up process otherwise you can add it in again as a promo code once your account is set up. Just remember to add the Celsius referral code before making any deposit to stay eligible.

Earning Interest with Celsius

To begin earning interest with Celsius, all you have to do is add money to your Celsius wallet. As soon as the money arrives in your account, you begin earning interest. 

For US residents, you can only earn interest “in kind”. That means if you deposit Bitcoin into your Celsius wallet, you’ll earn interest in Bitcoin. If you deposit USDC, you will earn interest in USDC. US residents are not allowed to earn interest in CEL token, so the earning rates are more generous. For all other countries that don’t have this restriction, the earning rates are generally lower.

For most non-US residents, you have the option to earn interest in CEL tokens or “in kind”. That means when you deposit BTC into your CEL crypto wallet, you can choose to earn interest in BTC (in kind) or in CEL. Users are incentivized with higher interest rates to earn in CEL.

When do I get paid interest with Celsius? Interest is earned daily with Celsius but it paid out to your Celsius wallet weekly. All interest earned will also continue to earn interest so you will earn compound interest.

Celsius Loans

Crypto backed loans are available through Celsius at outrageously low rates (1% or less if using CEL). First off, you should know that loans are not available to U.S. customers. There’s no getting around that unless you have identification from another country.

How do Celsius Network Loans work?

Celsius loans are only available to non-US customers at the moment (January 2020). To take out a loan with Celsius, there is a loan minimum of $500. The rates vary based on your Loan-To-Value (LTV).

Your LTV is based on your collateral. So if your want the low 1% loan from Celsius as a $500 loan, you’ll need an LTV of 25%. That means, you’ll need to put up at least $2000 worth of stablecoins or cryptocurrency to get that loan.

You can choose the terms of your loan. The interest rate you pay is the same for any of the loan durations. So you’ll see that the loan rate is the same for 6 months, 1 year, 2 years or 3 years. You’ll need to pre-pay the interest for at least 6 months (extra upfront money for Celsius).

Do I earn interest on my Celsius collateral? Assets locked as collateral for a loan through Celsius are not eligible to earn interest. Your cryptocurrency will hold it’s value even if it’s fluctuates in USD price. 1 BTC as collateral will remain as 1 BTC until your loan is complete. (Celsius statement)

Can I pay off my Celsius loan early? You can pay off your Celsius loans early but you won’t be refunded the interest payments.

What are the loan rates with Celsius?

What happens when I have a loan with Celsius and the value of my crypto drops? In the event that the price of your cryptocurrency drops when you have a Celsius Loan, you will receive a margin call when the LTV hits 65%. At that point you will have 12 hours to add more collateral or your loan will be liquidated.

How long do I have after a margin call to add collateral to my Celsius Loan? Celsius provides you up to 12 hours after a margin call to add more collateral to your loan. If your Loan-To-Value drops to 80%, Celsius will sell collateral until your LTV is at 70%. You will still be responsible for bringing your LTV back down to the agreed upon LTV rate (25/33/50). More info on the official Celsius Margin Call FAQ.

What happens If I don’t do anything about the margin call? Celsius will sell your collateral to fulfill the loan. Your loan will be closed but you will also lose all the collateral you used to get the loan.

What happens when the Loan-to-value changes due to crypto price changes? When you take out a loan with Celsius, you have to set the terms of the loan’s LTV (Loan-to-value). You can select 25%, 33% or 50%. The interest rates vary with each one, but Celsius does not provide a floating interest rate.

Celsius Pay (CelPay)

CelPay allows you to pay up to $2500 in one transaction to another Celsius user with a CelPay link. There aren’t any fees to send money and there aren’t any platform or gas fees when withdrawing assets from your Celsius wallet. The big bonus for me is that you can easily send money to someone without a long complicated address that has the risk of disappearing if you make a mistake.

How long does a CelPay link last? A CelPay link is available until the money is claimed. The sender of the CelPay link can cancel the payment through their Celsius wallet at any time.

How does Celsius Pay work? CelPay is available to use for ALL users with an IP address outside the United States. That means, if you are a US user and happen to have a VPN that changes your IP address to another country, you will get access to CelPay. Once you have CelPay active, you can send any amount of money or cryptocurrency (up to $2500) in a single transaction.

CelPay will generate a link that you can share to anyone you like and the funds can only be claimed through the Celsius app. The sender of the money has the ability to cancel the transaction at any time if the money is not claimed.

Be very careful when sending money through Celsius Pay, because you need to be aware of what you are sending. Are you sending 1 Ethereum or 1 USD? Make sure you are paying attention. After selecting how much you’d like to send, you will get an email verification for authorization before the money is sent. I actually really like the email authorization feature before I send any money out of my CelPay account.

HODL Mode: If you have HODL mode active, it takes 24 hours to disable before you can use CelPay or withdraw any money from your account. This is great for users who plan on just earning interest without using any other feature.

What currency is being sent through CelPay? When sending money with Celsius Pay, you can choose the cryptocurrency or stablecoin. After selecting the type of coin, you will then be able to select the amount. CelPay defaults to the coin and will display the USD amount below that.

NOTE: Make sure you aren’t accidentally sending 1 ETH instead of $1USD.

There’s a little arrow on the right to toggle between the coin value and the USD value. If you decide to send the USD value, CelPay will automatically do the calculation for you. As an example, I sent $1USD when ETH was around $600 and it sent 0.00169 ETH from my account. A few days after I sent that, ETH went up 20% in value and the receiver of my CelPay transaction received 0.00169 ETH.

HODL Mode

HODL mode locks up your wallet for withdrawals or payments for 24 hours. You’ll also need a special password to unlock your wallet. CelPay will not be available while in HODL mode.

The HODL Mode feature on the Celsius wallet is one of my favorites. Many people who are just investing aren’t making a lot of trades or withdrawals and want that extra security on their assets. This is a little similar to Coinbase’s Bitcoin cold storage feature, but that’s limited to just Bitcoin on Coinbase.

VPN recommendations

I recommend using a VPN to switch countries when trying to bypass region blocks on your Celsius wallet and if you just wanted access to Netflix content that’s available in other countries. To make things easy, I wrote up a detailed post on how to set up a VPN with a dedicated IP address (video) and how to set up a router with a VPN.

At home I have 2 dedicated home networks so I have an IP address in the US and in Taiwan. I just switch networks if I need access from a different country.

United States Vs International Users

Alright, I am writing this from the perspective of a US user, but that’s literally how it’s advertised on the Celsius website. International just means every country besides the US. There are advantages and disadvantages on both sides, so no need to feel too left out.

Celsius Fees

There are not any fees when using Celsius as a crypto wallet and to earn interest. Even to get loans, there aren’t any fees but Celsius will charge you for the full duration of the loan term in interest. That means if you have a 3 year loan, they expect you to pay 3 years of interest even if you pay it off early. The only fees for Celsius are when buying cryptocurrency. This is only available for Non-US users:

How to buy Celsius coin? Celsius coin (or Celsius tokens) can be purchased on any of the exchanges that sell CEL.

How can US users buy CEL tokens? Not all exchanges are available to United States citizens due to financial regulations. This makes it difficult to buy CEL coin, but not impossible. Your best bet is to get on a decentralized exchange that allows US users to register.

Taxes with Celsius

The Celsius App tracks all your wallet transactions and generates a tax report that you can receive as an email or in the mail. I know we don’t like paying taxes on our digital currency, but Celsius will report your earnings to the IRS (US Customers) because they want to stay compliant with the US financial regulations. The fact that you get a tax report from Celsius shows me that there is a lot of legitimacy to the platform and a lot of future growth in the event that they become a regulated bank in the US.

Where can I find my Celsius Tax Report? You can find your Celsius tax report in your profile menu at the bottom of the page.

Restrictions for U.S. users

Celsius Wallet has VERY limited functions for US residents:

• Can’t buy coins with a credit card
• Can’t get loans
• Can’t use CelPay (can bypass this with a VPN)
• Can’t earn interest in CEL

I’m okay with these restrictions, but it’s kind of annoying that the app let’s me get pretty deep into each of these processes before telling me that I’m not eligible as a US Citizen.

Which countries do not support Celsius Wallet?

• Iran
• North Korea
• Sudan
• South Sudan
• Syria
• Cuba
• + any other country which the US/UK/EU imposes financial sanctions