Celsius Expands Funding Round to $750M, Estimated Valuation of $7B-$10B in 2022

Cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius Network expanded its $400 million Series B funding round to $750 million from October, as the company’s funding round was oversubscribed.

Celsius Network is now valued at $3.5 billion, and CEO Alex Mashinsky told Cointelegraph that he expects that number to “double or triple” next year, which would bring it to a valuation of $7 billion to $10.5 billion.

The company previously closed the round on Oct. 12 amid intense scrutiny of the cryptocurrency lending firm by local regulators. Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky emphasized at the time, "It's not $400 million. It's the credit of those who write the checks."

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Nov. 25, Celsius outlined that the new funding will be used to expand new markets and products, as well as build out its recently announced centralized finance (CeFi) to decentralized finance (DeFi) bridge project "CelsiusX".

Celsius will also allocate funds to improve the “utility of its platform,” as well as its commitment to sustainably mine Bitcoin (BTC).

Speaking to Cointelegraph about the $750 million funding round, Mashinsky said the fact that the round was oversubscribed shows the strength of the Celsius brand, which he said is “very good” because Celsius is user-centric.

“If you think about what we do, which is pay out to the community, you know, we’ve paid out over a billion dollars to the community, we’re basically getting money from exchanges and institutions. Most of our competitors... They charge their clients a fee and then give all of that money to shareholders," he said.

Earlier this week, Celsisus planned to invest another $300 million in expanding its BTC mining operations in North America, bringing its total spend in the space to $500 million.

Mashinsky attributed his bullish estimate for Celsius’ value in 2022 to the company’s ability to provide services in nearly every area of cryptocurrency, highlighting the business’ growth potential:

“I think, on its own, it’s worth several times what we invest in. So between that and the growth of our core business, you know, the yield business, the lending business or the mining business, the DeFi business, all these things are obviously huge."

The Celsius CEO also pointed to the $115 million acquisition of cryptocurrency custody platform GK8 earlier this month, and revealed that the company has plans to enter the NFT space in the near future, although it won't launch a marketplace because he feels there are too many out there already. Many similar platforms.

"We think we can help expand the category to other use cases or other ways to, you know, unlock value for brands," he said.

Asked about the company’s $20 million crowdfunding that began in August 2020, in which more than 1,000 investors from the Celsius community backed the company. The company was valued at about $150 million at the time, and while investors can't currently sell their stakes, it has turned into a lucrative investment for them, Mashinsky said.

“Basically, how much do these 1,000 people make on average, is it 25 times their money or what? Obviously, it’s not liquid and they can’t sell it tomorrow. But we think, they’re very happy.”