Celsius, a crypto lending and earn interest platform | My experience unbanking myself?

I released an earlier article/video talking about why I convert my extra available cash after setting aside my emergency funds to stablecoins (mostly USDC). Do go over and take a look before continuing here. Today, I will be talking another platform where you can earn interest on your cryptocurrencies, they offer up to 40+ cryptocurrencies with different interest rates.

Read more: How much fiat cash VS stablecoins are you holding? | How my allocation is

Setting up of account + Stackable promo codes to get rewards

Setting of account was pretty simple, you do have to provide some form of ID as well as with other crypto exchanges. You can also download and use the app to sign up. It doesn't auto sign you in via the app until you have some form of assets in it.

What's really cool about it is the amount of promo codes they have however, some are stackable and some are not. So when signing up first, you can put in your friend's referral code or mine 🙂 at 1169038ddc and then when you deposit USD400 and more, you will get $50 in bitcoin after keeping it in for a month. For me, after I created my account, I also used 2 promo codes, STABLE50 and STABLE10 to earn another $50 in bitcoin and $10 in bitcoin. Do remember that you cannot transfer a lump sum in but you will need to transfer $200 and then $50 in USDC/USDT as per the terms and conditions. You will then also need to lock them up for 30 days before getting your rewards. They do have multiple promotion codes here and you can see which are stackable and which are not here. It can get pretty confusing but just try to secure those that you can meet the terms and conditions.

Earning interest

Celsius pays out weekly interest similar to Hodlnaut on Monday however something different is that you cannot choose your payout preference which Hodlnaut allows where you can use your Bitcoin to pay out USDC or ETH which is really a very convenient way to build up what you want to.

It also doesn't have the continuous ticker showing the amount that you are earning (which is oh, so addictive). Other than that, Celsius offers a lot more cryptocurrencies that can earn interest like DOT, LUNA, LINK and MATIC where of course, the interest fluctuates and varies.

Borrowing

Another cool feature on Celsius is that you are able to lend and borrow based on the cryptocurrencies you are giving as collateral. I am definitely not advocating for you to borrow but this opens up a whole new world as normally, you have to go through huge steps and administrative processes (eg credit checks) with Banks to get loans. But with platforms like Celsius, you can get a loan fast based on the collateral you are providing with no credit checks.

Do note that Celsius loans does not apply at every location hence if you are planning to get a loan, you will need to check via the mobile app.

Mobile App Interface

Celsius was founded in 2017 and have made many improvements to their app. So far, I have started using the app and it's interface is pretty simple but it provides the basics that is needed to see your coins, total value and also rewards.

My referral code and how I plan to use Celsius

For me, mainly I am using it to store my stablecoins (USDC), I have paid quite a bit of fees as you need to use the ERC-20 address to transfer it to Celsius. So far, after a few trial and error, the most cost-effective way is to buy DAI from Gemini since there are 10 free withdrawals per month, transfer DAI to Hodlnaut, token swap it to USDC and once it is end of the month, you can make use of the 1 withdrawal per month to move it to Celsius. You will pay a bit in the spread to swap DAI to USDC but it is not as bad as paying the fees for sending it to a ERC20 wallet address. Of course, if your Hodlnaut wallet is not maxed, it is better to leave it in Hodlnaut as it offers a higher interest. Celsius is more like a supplement to it and it has unlimited withdrawals making it much easier to access your funds (eg sending it back to exchange to buy).

You can also use Hodlnaut as a 'holding area' since Celsius does give promo codes as and when for example, currently till 5 December 2021, using the promo code CELSIUSCARES (for new and existing users) gives you $150 in bitcoin when you deposit $5000 or more in the supported coins and hold the $5000 in for 60 days. Hence, you can build up your funds in Hodlnaut and once there are any attractive promo codes released then you can move your funds from Hodlnaut to Celsius and since Celsius has unlimited withdrawals, you can then move back your funds once the holding period and reward has been paid out to you.

If you want to open an account, you can use my referral code and get $50 in bitcoin once you transfer $400 (USD) or more in and leave it in for 30 days. Use your friend's referral code if you have so you each will earn $50 in bitcoin. Hodlnaut has been great so far and I love all the features in it but as the amount in it increases, I do find a need to have some in another platform to spread out the risk. I have been using Celsius for a few weeks so far and it's been good. Although recently there have been some unfavourable news on it, firstly on it's CFO which Celsius has addressed by saying that they have suspended the CFO and he was not involved with any Celsius funds, another one is that Celsius has lost some funds in the BadgerDAO hack. Celsius does hold frequent AMA (Ask me anything) with their CEO via Youtube where they will address questions on, which I think is great as the BadgerDAO hack was also revealed in a recent AMA video that they did via Youtube. Do note to be careful when transferring your assets in as there are some cryptocurrencies that require a certain chain and need a memo ID. This carries certain amount of risk and hence do your own due diligence before getting in. Hope you guys have found this informative and do hit the like button and subscribe to my channel to show some support. Thank you!

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► How I Protect My Bitcoin using Ledger: Get your ledger from HERE (Using my affiliate link will help me where Ledger will pay a small incentive that's not from you but from them) - USD$25 discount coupon: THANKS-SHLRTVJ or THANKS-V35SSK5 or FRIEND-PDWTHLT
► How I earn interest on my Crypto (Hodlnaut): https://app.hodlnaut.com/signup?r=_JF037Nb0 Get USD20 equivalent for your initial deposit of at least USD1000 on any of the supported asset by using my referral link
►Join Celsius Network using my referral code 1169038ddc when signing up and earn $50 in BTC with your first transfer of $400 or more! https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1169038ddc
► Where I Buy my Cryptocurrencies: Gemini (Receive $10 of bitcoin after you buy or sell $100 after signing up using https://www.gemini.com/share/558gylyhg)
►FTX: https://ftx.com/#a=41877278 (If a new user signs up with my referral code, I will receive 25%-40% of their fees, and they will get 5% of their fees back)
►Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/evwynu4g57 or code: evwynu4g57 to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD :)
► Where I buy my stocks
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers (Free stock and commission free trades, check out more here
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
► Google Pay: v89ph61 

References: https://thefipharmacist.com/tools/celsius/
https://celsius.network/
https://allaboutcelsius.com/active-celsius-promo-codes/