DeFi platform Celsius Network is running a fundraising round

Celsius Network wants to raise money from its community. Anyone with over $1,000 to spare can invest—local securities laws permitting.

Crypto lending company Celsius Network today announced that qualified investors can buy equity in its fundraising round for as little as $1,000. In total, $5 million worth of equity is up for grabs, and investors have 45 days to nab it.  

With BnkToTheFuture, a crowd investment platform that comprises 85,000 qualified investors, Celsius is hoping to avoid reliance on traditional venture capital firms and instead seek “community participation,” Celsius wrote in a statement.

“It’s a match made in heaven,” exalted Simon Dixon, the CEO of BnkToTheFuture. 

Whether you count as a qualified investor depends on local securities laws, although “the platform is designed to be as inclusive as laws permit,” wrote Celsius in a statement. 

Celsius in a disclaimer wrote that “The investment opportunity is not directed at persons located in the United States.”

In exchange for their money, investors will gain equity in the company, valued at $120 million. Celsius, which launched in 2018, claims to have 100,000 active wallets (an increase of 10% since the end of April), and $630 million in assets under management (down $794 million since the end of April). So far, its platform has been used for a total of $6.2 billion in loans. 

The company doesn’t have any transaction fees and claims to return 80% of the money it makes back to depositors. Users can even lend their cryptocurrency at rates of 10% per year! (Volatility permitting). 

Why is Celsius relying on crowdsourcing?

Relying on the community is part and parcel of being a crypto company; Celsius has already raised $50 million from 1,500 participants in its 2018 ICO. 

“The crypto community is at the core of what we do,” said CEO Alex Mashinsky in a statement. “Every decision we make as a company, big and small, must go through a very simple checklist: does it benefit the community.”

BnkToTheFuture’s 85,000-strong community have invested almost $850 million in companies, among them Coinbase, Circle, and Bitfinex. Could it become the next Coinbase?