- DeFi savings protocol Celsius has hit $20 billion in AUM with $1.2 billion being added every month
- Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky told Blockworks that the interest it pays out reflects the true value of the dollar
Nearly 1 million people have deposited a combined $20 billion into DeFi lending and savings protocol Celsius, with $1.2 billion being added every month, the company said today.
Celsius allows its users to deposit stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies to generate yield. According to a chart on its website, the company pays out 8.88% yield on most stablecoins and between 0.5% -to 13% on other types of digital assets from bitcoin, ether, to SNX and polkadot.
“The 8.8% we pay on stablecoins is the real value of the US dollar. It’s not 0.1%, which is what JP Morgan or Wells Fargo or other people tell you that you should be earning for your dollar,” CEO Alex Mashinsky told Blockworks in an interview, recounting his earlier days when you could earn 7% from a bank on a simple deposit. “Most people don’t believe that. Most people think that the real indication of where the market is is the cost of money.”
“We have $20 billion telling you that it’s 8.8%,” he continued.
At its core, Mashinsky said, Celsius has a market because of the lack of yield opportunities available to the average retail consumer given years of cheap money from the Fed.
“The Fed and the banks are robbing a whole generation, not just of the young people, but also retirees, of their money. And we’re doing that because we’re trying to basically save the American economic machine,” he said.
Celsius’ token is currently trading at $5.56, down 6% on-day, according to CoinGecko. Competitors to Celsius include Aave, which has $15.29 billion in AUM, according to DeFi Pulse, and Compound which counts $10.2 billion in its virtual vaults.
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