For any new financial system to succeed, the two most important factors are how efficiently it can transfer value from one holder to another and how well it creates value. And, for cryptos, these concerns were natural when it was tossed up as the currency of the future.

Since their humble beginning in 2009, cryptocurrencies have evolved and proved their efficiency in transferring value. And, now, as we are moving forward, a new form of the crypto economy is evolving, i.e., crypto lending.

At present, many platforms support crypto lending or Bitcoin lending, but today in this blog, we will review two popular and relatively new crypto lending platforms, YouHodler and Celsius.

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YouHodler vs. Celsius Network: Introduction

YouHodler is a Swiss-based crypto lending platform that provides fiat (USD, EUR), crypto (BTC), and stablecoin (USDC, USDT, TUSD, PAX) loans, all backed by the user’s crypto holdings. Apart from crypto lending, YouHodler also offers crypto to crypto, crypto to fiat conversion, and high-yielding saving accounts.

To date, YouHodler has processed loans worth over $20 million and has served over 10,000 customers worldwide. You can read our detailed review of Youhodler here.

 

Celsius is a relatively new platform founded in 2017, providing members with curated services that traditional financial institutions fail to provide.

Its mission is not to be just a crypto lending platform but to connect the next 100 million people to a financial system (cryptocurrency) who are still not connected to banking yet.

Celsius has achieved many milestones quickly, with deposits exceeding $300 million in value and over $4.2 billion in coin loan origination.

It has its own token CEL, which powers the network and gives members exclusive access to some premium features of the Celsius network.

To provide greater returns to members, the Celsius network gives back 80% profit to the community, and the rest 20% is invested back in the company. You can always check out our complete Celsius Network review for more details.

Features of YouHodler

Crypto Loans

  • Supports 12 top crypto coins as collateral
  • Instant credit card and bank withdrawals
  • Up to 90% loan-to-value ratio
  • Flexible loan tenure and loan-to-value ratio options

Turbocharge

The Turbocharge feature lets you borrow up to 6.5X  funds against your collateralized fund. Through the Turbocharge feature, the platform sets a series of borrowing activities in which the borrowed funds from the first loan are used to buy more crypto and get another loan. The process is repeated from 3 to 10 times, depending on your requirements.

In the case of a bull run, which is quite usual in the cryptosphere, there is a Set Take Profit price, and you can use it to repay the fees and take the rest of your cryptos.

Crypto Lending

  • Earn interest up to 12% per annum on deposits of BTC, BNB, USDT, USDC, TUSD, and PAX
  • Monthly interest payout on deposits
  • Users funds are protected by YouHodler’s $1 million security fund

Multi HODL 

The feature allows you to multiply your crypto funds quickly without taking a significant risk. For this, YouHodler uses The Barbell Strategy, where 80% of funds are kept safe in a savings account, with zero risks.

And, the rest of 20% of your fund is invested in speculative bets and high-risk/high-reward investments. The strategy has a maximum upside of 150% and a limited downside of up to 50%.

YouHodlers claims that the Multi HODL feature can deliver a potential profit of up to 1000%.

Features of Celsius Network

Celsius offers a wide range of features to crypto investors and users. Celsius provides CelPay, CEL token, and Pro services, apart from the obvious loans and interest account.

Here’s a quick overview of the features and services offered by Celsius.

Cash Loans

  • Allows borrowing funds against seven different crypto assets, including BTC, ETH, BCH, XRP, LTC, DASH, and EOS
  • Flexible loan to value ratio of 25%, 33%, and 50%
  • Interest rate starting at 3.47% APR
  • Up to 3 years loan term
  • Option to pay interest with CEL token (recommended) and with fiat currency
  • Zero fees and penalties on prepayment

Earn Crypto

  • Can earn up to 12% APY on over 25 top cryptocurrencies
  • No minimum deposit policy
  • No lock-up period and have access to all your funds anytime
  • Earn interest on your favorite currency and earn more while taking interest payment in CEL token

CelPay

It is a money transfer application that lets you send and receive cryptos for free. CelPay supports all major cryptocurrencies and allows you to send funds in just three steps, making it super easy and quick. CelPay allows you to transfer cryptos to and from almost every crypto wallet.

CEL Token

The CEL token is the native token of the Celsius Network. You can buy it on BitFinex, Bittrex, Liquid, and FTX. Or, if you want to buy over $25,000 worth of CEL, you can buy CEL directly by contacting the Celsius OTC desk.

Celsius Pro

Celsius Pro is a dedicated product for institutions, family offices, and high net worth individuals who want to deposit a large amount of crypto. Pro members get access to competitive rates, access to the lending and trading desk, and the ability to buy and trade over 40 digital assets.

How YouHodler Crypto-Backed Loans Work?

YouHodler acts as a pawnshop that accepts top-14 cryptos as collateral for giving fiat loans to customers. In the first step, you need to transfer cryptos to your YouHodler wallet.

Following the successful transfer of cryptos, the loan approval takes seconds, and the amount depends on the prevailing price of the crypto asset. Following approval, you instantly receive USD, EUR, USDT, or BTC on your account.

The cash withdrawals options are:

  • Bank wire withdrawals via SEPA and SWIFT
  • Supports credit card withdrawal to your MasterCard and VISA
  • Crypto withdrawals through YouHodler’s integrated exchange

Repayments are as simple as getting a loan. You can repay using your credit card, stablecoin, or bank account to get your collateralized cryptos back.  There are no fees involved in deposits and withdrawals from your YouHodler account.

YouHodler offers up to a 90% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. It means you can get a loan of up to 90% of your crypto collateral’s value. This high-interest rate makes YouHodler one of the best crypto loan providers in the market.

How do YouHodler Interest Account Works?

YouHodler offers up to 12.3% returns, also known as annual percentage yield (APY), on your crypto deposits. It allows you to deposit around 40 cryptocurrencies. The APY is comparable to Hodlnaut, which offers up to 12.73% APY.

These include popular cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH, stablecoins like USDT and USDC, and new assets like BAT and REP.

The earning interest rate is the highest on stablecoins — 12.3%. YouHodler offers 4.8% APY on BTC, 5.5% APY on ETH, and 11% APY on MATIC. YouHodler gives weekly interest payments in your savings account. You can either withdraw your earnings or let them sit there and earn compounding interest.

The process to earn interest on your crypto assets is simple. You need to deposit crypto in your crypto interest account and leave it there. That’s it. You can literally earn free crypto in the form of high-yield assets.

You can even boost your crypto earnings with the help of the Multi HODL feature. It offers a 30x multiplier, allowing you to earn an asymmetrical high profit for limited risk.

How do Celsius Crypto Loans Work?

Crypto loans on Celsius work similar to how they work on YouHodler. You can use your crypto collateral to borrow cash. One of the striking features of crypto loans by Celsius is the low interest rates. It allows you to take a loan at a nominal interest rate of 1%, while other lenders charge higher interest rates.

The interest rate depends on the loan-t0-value (LTV) ratio. Here’s how the relationship looks like:

  • 25% LTV — 1.00% interest rate
  • 33% LTV — 6.95% interest rate
  • 50% LTV — 8.95% interest rate

The minimum loan amount available on the Celsius app is $500, and the minimum loan term is six months. Though there is no loan prepayment fee, you’ll need to pay the full interest of six months even if you pay your loan earlier.

The Celsius website states that they don’t charge any loan origination or processing fee. The only amount you need to pay is the interest rate. This is better than BlockFi, which charges a 2% loan origination fee.

Coming to the process, Celsius has a simple, four-step process to borrowing crypto-backed loans.

  • Choose whether you want to receive a loan in USD or stablecoins. Also, enter the amount you want to borrow.
  • Pick the crypto asset you want to use as collateral and the LTV/interest rate combination. As discussed, the higher the LTV, the higher the interest rate.
  • Select the duration of your loan, which can vary between six months and three years.
  • Confirm your details and send a loan request. Celsius generally approves your loan request on the same day.

That’s it. You’ll have the desired loan amount in your account within a few hours.

How does Celsius Interest Account Work?

Celsius works just like any other crypto exchange platform, where you need to create an account and verify your identity. Following completion, transfer the funds or crypto assets into your Celsius wallet. Once your wallet is updated, you can gain access to the interest-earning feature.

The website also features two interest calculators, one for calculating the interest payments on your crypto deposits for different tenure. And another one for calculating the interest component on the borrowed sum for different loan tenure.

Celsius pays up to 17% APY. However, don’t get too excited, as there are a few considerations you’ll need to keep in mind.

The APY is 8.8% for stablecoins, including TUSD, GUSD, USDC, PAX, etc. For cryptocurrencies, the earned interest rates vary between 0.50% (lowest) for MANA to 13.99% (highest) for SNX. The APY is 6.20% for BTC, 5.35% for ETH, and 8.86% for DOT.

However, if you accept a reward in CEL (Celsius’ native token), you can get a boost on your APY. For instance, 8.88% on stablecoins becomes 11.21%, 5.35% on ETH becomes 6.35%, and 13.99% on SNX becomes 17.78%.

Celsius pays out interest every week. Like YouHodler, you can keep your profits in your account and earn compound interest on them.

Countries where YouHodler & Celsius Don’t Provide Service

YouHodler is an international cryptocurrency platform that offers services in almost all countries in the world.

However, it doesn’t offer services in some countries, including the US and its unincorporated territories, Bangladesh, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, and Palestinian territories.

Celsius Network is available in almost all states of the US. It’s an international platform and offers services in all countries except those sanctioned by the US, the UK, or the EU.

These include Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and other territories involving high compliance risks. Other countries where Celsius services cannot be accessed by users residing in Japan, New Zealand, Israel.

The Celsius Network services are also not available in some states of the US, including. Visit this link and read the footnote to check whether Celsius services are available in your region.

Safety & Security

Safety is one of the most important things to consider before choosing a platform to buy and lend cryptocurrencies. Fortunately, both YouHodler and Celsius Network are two of the most secure platforms for lending and borrowing crypto.

Let’s talk about Celsius first. Celsius is a US-registered and SEC-regulated cryptocurrency platform and has achieved the ISO/IEC 27001 security certification. It implements world-class security features with multi-party computation (MPC).

Some security measures taken by Celsius are:

  • Multi-signature cold storage wallets
  • Two-factor authentication
  • Mandatory KYC and SEC regulatory compliance
  • Insurance through Fireblocks

Coming to YouHodler, the company is registered in Switzerland, and therefore, it isn’t regulated by the US SEC. It also follows all the essential security measures, including cold storage wallets, multi-factor authentication, and mandatory KYC.

YouHodler provides insurance worth $150 million via its custodian Ledger Vault.

In all, both platforms have comparable security. If you’re a US-based user, Celsius will be ideal for you. If you’re not based in the US, you can choose either of the two platforms.

Customer Support & Service

Customer support is another critical factor to consider when selecting a platform for crypto lending and borrowing. If you’re a beginner, you may run into technical issues or have questions regarding interest rates, returns, etc. In such cases, good customer service can be helpful.

YouHodler has decent customer support. It offers support primarily on email. You can reach the YouHodler team at [email protected]. Alternatively, you can download the YouHodler mobile app and contact the team on the chat platform.

YouHodler also has a comprehensive knowledge base comprising FAQs and articles to answer most of your questions.

Celsius, too, has amazing customer support and service. You can submit a request via email by visiting the “Submit a request” page. There is also a live chat feature accessible through the website.

In addition, Celsius Network has a vast knowledge base with over 100 articles on frequently asked questions about transfers, withdrawals, weekly rewards, loans, California loans, CEL tokens, and more.

Celsius has the edge over YouHodler in the customer support department purely because of its live chat support.

Conclusion

Both YouHodler and Celsius are innovative lending platforms with unique capabilities. There are no clear winners. Celsius is fast and simple, making it a preferred choice among users, and the number supports the fact.

However, in terms of features and functionalities, YouHodler takes the lead and allows users to take the maximum benefits of their crypto assets.  If you’re in a fix between the two, compare both options and select the one that suits your needs.

Since YouHodler isn’t available in the US, citizens based in the US don’t have much choice. However, if you’re outside the US and can choose between the two platforms, your choice must depend on your individual requirements.

Our #1 Recommendation


  • Earn upto 17% APY Interest on Crypto 

  • Get Weekly Interest Credit 

  • Funds are Insured by BitGo

  • Get Bitcoin Bonus worth $50

Sudhir Khatwani