A cryptocurrency organization founded as a bank in 2017. The Celsius Network was popular because it touted interest of 18% and more on deposits of bitcoin, ether and other cryptos. To power the system, the CEL token launched in 2018. By 2021, Celsius had more than 1.5 million customers, but in June 2022 when most crypto prices were dropping dramatically, Celsius temporarily stopped withdrawals to keep its service afloat. In July, the company declared bankruptcy.
A few months later, Core Scientific, which hosted mining rigs for Celsius, shut down 37,000 crypto mining machines. In 2023, the court-appointed examiner found that Celsius used the funds of new customers to pay for withdrawals of existing customers, making it seem like a Ponzi scheme. See
crypto glossary.