Updated on:12/01/2025 05:02 PM 
Alex Mashinsky, the American entrepreneur widely known for establishing telecommunication infrastructure across the United States, once famously criticized Bitcoin as the slowest database on the planet. His perspective transformed when he realized it solved the digital double-spending problem. When Mashinsky becomes interested in something, he acts quickly. The result is the Celsius Network, a cryptocurrency platform that has grown 20x in just one year.
Alongside his fascination with crypto came a profound dissatisfaction with how the banking system served its customers—or rather, failed to serve them.
“I'm not alone in this feeling,” he states. “There was a survey where people said they'd rather visit the dentist than meet with their bankers. We all share this instinctive reaction.”
Currently, the banking system is particularly broken. As he points out, people work hard, receive salaries, lose nearly half to taxes, and then can't earn any meaningful interest on their remaining money. In this low/negative interest environment, their money loses purchasing power, on top of which they're charged various banking and credit card fees.
“The system is rigged. For most non-accredited investors, you cannot participate in alternative investments, and you're excluded from value appreciation. That's what we designed Celsius to address. We're the opposite of Wall Street—where insiders refer to retail investors as plankton because they prey on them.
“We do the opposite of banks. We charge fees to institutions, like Goldman Sachs.”
Celsius reverses this power dynamic within the financial system, focusing on serving everyday people.
“Our focus is ordinary people who don't have time to trade every day. They have jobs, families, and lives. Maybe they have a nest egg, and they want to try and grow that. But banks only pay 0.1% in interest while inflation is running at 7%, so you can never catch up.”
Unlike many crypto platforms that profit by selling assets to users, Celsius doesn't push investments onto people—where fees are typically generated through transactions. Instead, it allows customers to choose their own digital assets; it supports 50 of the top cryptocurrencies, and then offers yield on their deposits to the platform.
The beauty is that customers retain ownership of their assets while earning rewards paid out weekly. If those assets appreciate in value over time, it's a double win.
“Don't sell your Ethereum or Bitcoin. And if you need a loan, you can borrow against these assets as collateral.”
The process is straightforward. First, customers download the app, complete KYC verification, and then select the coins they want to transfer to the platform. Rewards on customers' holdings are paid every week. Just over a year ago, Celsius had approximately $1 billion in assets on its platform. At the beginning of 2022, it had 1.5 million customers and more than $20 billion in assets. That's a 20x increase in one year.
During this same period, Celsius has been in fundraising mode, with an initial $400 million round followed by an additional $350 million.
“The demand is there,” explains Mashinsky. “Money is leaving traditional banking and entering crypto. More and more banks are struggling, but there's a silver lining because this disruption is forcing banks to become better.
“For example, we're starting to see banks reduce their fees. JPMorgan Chase and several other major banks have announced in recent weeks that they're reducing or eliminating the fees they charge—the monthly fees, the overdraft charges, etc. We're not only serving everyday people, but we're also keeping banks in check.”
“We don't want any bad actors to put our platform in danger, so we follow all regulations to the letter of the law.”
When traditional financiers enter the crypto space, they sometimes try to bring their Wall Street practices with them—charging high fees, encouraging frequent trading, and essentially operating against customers' best interests. By contrast, Celsius is focused on helping people achieve financial freedom.
“I joke that we don't sell cigarettes or tobacco, we don't sell fast food or sugary drinks—we only sell salad. If you want those other unhealthy options, you'll have to go elsewhere because we won't offer things we believe will hurt your chances of achieving financial freedom.
“And to demonstrate that we're the good guys, we pay rewards every Monday, we don't charge fees, and we host weekly AMAs where we speak directly to our community. Compare that to banks, who are profitable again but only distribute those profits to shareholders.
“We are feeding the plankton, not feeding off them.”
