Celsius is a decentralized lending platform that allows users to take out fiat loans with crypto assets as collateral. It originated in 2017 when Alex Mashinsky and S. Daniel Leon noted the plan for the project on a napkin. According to Celsius’ whitepaper, it aims to “legally replace Wall Street with blockchain” and reclaim control over the credit flow.
The Celsius network relies on two components in order to function: the Celcius platform and external exchange markets. The Celcius platform is responsible for facilitating secure trading and regulating the fees involved. And external exchange markets process the said trades and act as liquidity providers. CEL is an ERC-20 token that powers the Celcius network. Borrowers use Celsius coins to access the ability to take out a loan with cryptocurrency and collateral and can earn rewards for depositing their CEL tokens for lending.
On July 14th, Celcius announced that it has officially filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving many users with the question “what happened to Celsius crypto?”. As Celcius explains, this will allow it to reorganize and stabilize its business, maximizing the value for stakeholders. This also means that all of the withdrawals, swaps, and transfers have been paused for the time being.