Celsius Secures $10M Investment from Tether in First Equity-Financing Round

Stablecoin firm Tether Ltd has invested $10 million in Celsius Network’s first equity financing round, which raised a total of $30 million.

Celsius Network allows users to borrow cryptocurrency (or earn interest on their cryptocurrency). Tether, meanwhile, is the largest stablecoin on the crypto market, boasting a market cap of $9 billion. Alex Mashinksy, CEO of Celsius, considers Tether’s support a good sign for the company.

“The fact that they chose Celsius is very important because obviously they could have worked with anyone,” he said.

Tether’s investment will be used to fund the lending and borrowing platform’s growth, helping it “grow its community and expand the institutional services,” according to a press release.

Critics are concerned that Tether’s powerful nature could allow Tether to exert pressure on Celsius and compromise the lending company’s mission. Shareholders like Tether could, in theory, vote to take some of the platform’s profits for themselves—at the expense of Celsius’ end-users, who usually get 80% of the company’s profits.

However, Celsius has deliberately refused to give Tether and other investors board seats, meaning those companies will have limited control over lending and borrowing platform. The company itself remains the largest shareholder, and it will retain full control of its lending platform.

The company’s independence will allow it to keep its own profit margins low. Celsius currently allocates 80% of its revenue to users, which is distributed as higher interest rates on crypto-deposits.

Celsius Network is one of many DeFi services that allow users to borrow and lend cryptocurrency. Competing services include BlockFi, Nexo, Crypto.com, and Cred. Incidentally, Tether has collaborated with at least one other lending platform, Aave—meaning that today’s partnership is not an entirely exclusive one.

Furthermore, many DeFi platforms list Tether, regardless of whether they have partnered with or received an investment from the stablecoin company. Celsius listed Tether (USDT) and Tether Gold (XAUT) before today’s announcement.