I had put some of my BTC from another crypto “investment” into Celsius’s Earn program. The first few months were great, I was seeing interest returned etc. and then we all know what happened next.
After they filed for bankruptcy, I knew that was a lost cause which was kind of fine since it was money I was willing to part with anyway (doesn’t make it right ofc, I know so many people whose savings were wiped out from putting their hard earned cash in Celsius). So I was very surprised to find out I still ended up getting SOME money back. Cash value wise, I was able to get back about 50% of my money. Not bad. And being that the payout was combined BTC and ETH, it could potentially still be higher depending on how crypto performs in the future.
Overall, this is a great reminder of… cashing out early lol.
They ran something similar to a ponzi. They had their own coin, CEL, which they bought up using customer and investor funds, and then sold behind the scenes for profit. Profits where used to pay execs that were “selling” their own CEL holdings as well. All the while, they promised 17% APY on customer deposits, which they paid out until the market imploded in 2022 and they halted withdrawals.
The balance sheet blew up to over $1.5bn before all the market turmoil in like 2021 , but a lot of that was CEL, which was basically worthless. Then they realized they weren’t making enough money to cover interest payments, so they used several $100mn in stablecoins to borrow Bitcoin and ETH. They ending up being $1bn in the hole. And then the entire crypto market cratered.
Do you think they’d still be around of the crypto market didn’t tank? Or was that doomed right from when they launched it just because of the sheer nature of their business?
Gemini Exchange was offering 8% on deposits. Regulated out of NYC in the US. Their business partner filed for bankruptcy before returning over $1b in customer deposits. They just resolved this after initially halting withdrawals in Nov of 2022. Looks like I get 100% of my money back in a couple of months. Bankruptcy started in Jan of 2023. And then 13 months of lawsuits.
Yeah, that’s who it was!! Gemini!! I was about to move my money from my bank account to Gemini, but changed my mind. Doing so was too much of a distraction for me. I was focusing on studying.
