Celsius Closes Equity Funding Round With Over $18.8 Million Raised
- The blockchain-based financial services company completed their first equity round after previously raising $10 million from Tether.
- The company has vowed to give back 80% of all earned crypto interest in the future back to the community.
Alex Mashinsky, founder and CEO of Celsius, speaking at CoinDesk’s Consensus conference, September, 2019. CoinDesk
On July 24, Celsius, a leading interest income and crypto lending platform, announced the end of its first equity funding round with more than $18.8 million in investments.
After previously receiving $10 million from Tether, at a $120 million pre-money evaluation, the company have now well exceeded their fundraising goal of $17 million. Over 85,000 qualified investors from BnkToTheFuture’s network were able to participate in the funding and acquire a part of Celsius’ equity with as little as $1,000.
According to the announcement, BnkToTheFuture is the largest investment platform for crypto companies, enabling compliant funding rounds for a variety of established crypto firms such as Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coinbase, Blockchain.com, and Circle, with a total of $850 million of investments in the sector.
In regard to the fundraiser, BnkToTheFuture CEO, Simon Dixon, also appeared on an exclusive podcast with Celsius CEO, Alex Mashinsky, discussing different company products, with the latest roadmap updates presented. They also conducted a live AMA session, answering questions from the chat. Then, they talked about the different updates coming to BnkToTheFuture’s Security Token Exchange and BF Wallet and Identity.
Celsius is a democratized blockchain platform, allowing its users to borrow cash and crypto loans at unusually low interest rates, starting at 0.70%. There are no fees whatsoever, with more than 80% of the company’s revenues going back to the community in the form of interest payments.
The company provides services that are not usually available through traditional financial institutions and allows users to earn back crypto with up to 10% on what they initially invested. Celsius also provides the ability to instantly transfer crypto through their application CelPay, allowing users to send Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies without any wallet required.
“We are thrilled at the response we have gotten from our community during this fundraiser,” said CEO Alex Mashinsky. “It is our goal to continue to work for our community, and we saw this as an opportunity to have them participate directly [via equity] in a way that aligns with our mission of giving back up to 80% to our community.”
- The bankrupt crypto lender said that if its reorganization plan is approved, it is ready to start repaying its customers using $2 billion in BTC and ETH by the end of the year.
- If given the green light, Celsius will restart its business under the “NewCo” brand without any funded debt, and with seed funding of up to $450 million.
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- The bankrupt crypto lender has agreed on a settlement with its Series B holders on how to distribute the $25 million from the sale of self-custody platform GK8.
- The majority of funds, $24 million, will be allocated for legal expenses, while the remaining $1 million will be distributed between the Series B holders.
- The U.S. SEC, CFTC, and FTC have all filed separate lawsuits against bankrupt crypto lender Celsius and its former CEO Alex Mashinsky, charging them with multiple counts of fraud.
- Mashinsky was also arrested in New York on Thursday, and later charged by the Department of Justice with securities fraud, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.