FinTech News

Celsius Looks to Disrupt P2P Lending with Crypto Twist

More than a decade ago, peer to peer lenders like Lending Club and Prosper sought to make lending more efficient and profitable by removing big banks from the equation. Under their peer to peer (P2P) model, borrowers would first be vetted by the platform but ultimately have their loan fulfilled by investors looking to earn a piece of the interest. Now it seems that the disruptors could be set for disruption as one company looks to take the P2P concept and add a crypto twist.

Celsius says it’s “building a P2P decentralized lending & borrowing platform” that will not only allow users to borrow against their cryptocurrency holdings but also earn interest for keeping their coin on the platform. As their site explains, users will be able join the lending pool by adding their cryptocurrency to Celsius and earning daily interest. On the other side, Celsius customers will also be able to put their crypto up as collateral and take out a loan in U.S. dollars, preventing them from having to sell (or allowing them to “hodl,” if you will).

Naturally, given Celsius’s proposed place in the crypto space, the company is preparing an initial coin offering (ICO). The Celsius Token (CEL)  is what will enable users to enjoy the benefits of the platform, including accruing interest and accessing loans. As the company’s white paper explains, “We’re designing CEL (ERC20 Token) to be the backbone of the Celsius Network, creating a value-driven lending and borrowing platform for all our members.” The public crowdsale of CEL is set to begin March 15th and coins can be purchased using Ethereum, Bitcoin, or USD.

According to their whitepaper, the next steps for the company include launching phase one of their Celsius Wallet app in Q2 2018. Additionally they plan to add support for various alt-coins, making their way through the top 20 cryptocurrencies available. Then the first USD loans from the platform are expected to go out in Q3 2018. Finally the company also has plans for upgrading their platform in 2019, including allowing trading on multiple platforms and employing smart algorithms to help users reduce their risk.

With crypto and ICOs reaching a fever pitch, it’s easy to be skeptical of a company like Celsius. At the same time their plans to introduce what is essentially P2P lending for cryptocurrency really isn’t that crazy at all. Obviously we’ll have to wait and see how the platform operates once launched, but this FinTech could certainly be one to watch.

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