Celsius Network

Headquartered in London, Celsius offers a lending platform for users to take cryptocurrency-backed cash loans and earn interest on stablecoin or other token deposits. It also provides a digital wallet for holding and transferring tokens and uses the native token CEL. The platform offers holders of CEL preferential interest rates on loans or on making deposits. In November 2021, Celsius announced that it would be launching a decentralized finance (DeFi) arm named Celsius X to bridge centralized finance (CeFi) and DeFi, providing users with fee-less liquidity. The company was also in the early stages of building a stablecoin at the time.

Celsius also offers an in-app token swap feature that enables users to exchange tokens on the platform without paying fees. This feature was in beta as of May 2022. As of April 2022, the platform served over 1 million users from over 140 countries with over 150,000 BTC in reserves. Additionally, since its launch in June 2018, the platform processed over USD 8.2 billion in loans (as of May 2022).

Funding and financials

In November 2021, Celsius Network raised USD 350 million in Series B funding, expanding upon the previous USD 400 million it raised in October 2021 at a valuation of USD 3.5 billion. The funds were earmarked for expansion into new markets and product offerings as well as investing in the development of CelsiusX.

In July 2022, Celsius Network filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company stated it had USD 167 million in cash on hand, which is reportedly sufficient to support “certain operations during the restructuring process.” The company also sold off its self-custody platform GK8 (which it acquired in November of 2021 for USD 115 million) to Galaxy Digital for an undisclosed amount, in December 2022.

In January 2023, the company announced plans to rebrand itself as a publicly traded "recovery corporation" to exit bankruptcy and pay some of its creditors. A year later, Celsius went on to successfully recover from bankruptcy by completing the transactions underlined in this restructuring plan. The plan, which was approved by a majority of the company’s account holders and confirmed by a bankruptcy court, includes the distribution of over USD 3 billion of both cryptocurrency and fiat to Celsius’ creditors. Notably, after the confirmation of the plan and review by the SEC, the company intended to collaborate with creditors to create a new Bitcoin mining company named “Ionic Digital,” which will be owned by Celsius’ creditors.