I can explain the whole Celcius business model in less than 5 minutes to anyone that doesnt know anything about crypto. ...(apt explanation)...
All the insiders sold and made bank
A couple years back I had a job writing for one of the top 3 crypto news websites.
One day my asshole editor tells me I'm doing an interview with Alex Mashinsky (Celsius CEO) for a story, gear up.
The subject of the story is to be about how an "independent research firm" puts Celsius' valuation 3x higher than its previous assessment.
I do a bit of background research and find out said research firm is heavily invested in Celsius.
Additional research into Maskinsky's claims about being the inventor of this and that technology (all bogus) lead me to suspect he's a sociopath douche.
I bring this up to my editor and tell him I don't feel comfortable doing the interview or writing the story. He says write it or you're fired.
Two days later I'm fired.
Fast-forward two years: the editor has been a heavy supporter of Mashinsky and customer of Celsius. He lost everything he put in there.
When all the shit went down earlier this year I was tempted to write him a "ha-ha-told-you-so"-type email or expose him publicly, but I never did. I reckon its ultimately not necessary, but can't help but wonder if he remembers me.
An interesting story...Texas actually sued Celsius and thinking that they would probably prevent state inhabitants from participating probably saved my hive with respect to Celsius. I was 'hungry" for yield in 2020-2021 and could have lost a bit there, but didn't. Or, maybe it was a little doubt, I cannot really recall. Same happened with Mt. Gox in late 2013...never bought anything there, just did not feel right.