Nexo and Celsius are two popular crypto lending and financial services platforms where users can take advantage of a variety of crypto services. Nexo was launched in 2018 and is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. They have 5 million users worldwide. Celsius was also founded in 2018 and is based in Hoboken, New Jersey. In this Celsius and Nexo review we compare different aspects of these platforms so you can determine which best fills your needs.
Nexo is a crypto lending platform that offers a variety of services including crypto backed loans, crypto interest earning accounts, a crypto exchange and a credit card. They also have their own native cryptocurrency, the NEXO token. The platform supports 45 different cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
Celsius, like Nexo, is a cryptocurrency lending platform which provides a number of different cryptocurrency financial services to users. In addition to crypto backed loans, they offer services for crypto buying and trading and crypto interest earning accounts. They have their own token, CEL. The Celsius platform supports 49 cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
Nexo Features
Celsius Features
Users receive better loan rates and higher returns on interest earning accounts based on their reward tier level.
The interest rates paid on loans at Nexo depend on the loyalty tier level of the user. The following table shows Nexo loan interest rates for the different tier levels.
| Tier Level | NEXO Token Requirement | Interest on Credit Balance |
| Base | No NEXO Tokens Needed | 13.9% |
| Silver | Minimum of 1% of the user’s portfolio balance in NEXO | 12.9% |
| Gold | Minimum of 5% of the user’s portfolio balance in NEXO | 8.9% for LTV over 20% 1.9% for LTV of 20% or lower |
| Platinum | Minimum of 10% of the user’s portfolio balance in NEXO | 6.9% for LTV over 20% 0% for LTV of 20% or lower |
Loan interest rates at Celsius depend on the LTV of the loan and the users reward tier level
| Loan to Value (LTV) | Annual Percentage Rate |
| 25% LTV | 0.10% to 2.95% |
| 33% LTV | 1% to 6.95% |
| 50% LTV | 1.95% to 8.95% |
If borrowers pay their loan in CEL they can get another 25% taken off the rate.
The interest earning rates on Nexo cryptocurrency deposits vary depending on the particular digital coin as well as the loyalty tier level. The following are the rates for 10 different digital coins.
| Cryptocurrency | Base | Silver | Gold | Platinum |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | 4% | 4.5% | 5.5% | 7% |
| Polkadot (DOT) | 11% | 11.5% | 13% | 15% |
| Avalanche (AVAX) | 8% | 8.75% | 10% | 12% |
| Cosmos (ATOM) | 7% | 7.75% | 9% | 11% |
| Fantom ((FTM) | 6% | 6.75% | 8% | 10% |
| Solano (SOL) | 5% | 5.5% | 6.5% | 8% |
| Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | 5% | 5.5% | 6.5% | 8% |
| PAX Gold (PAX) | 4% | 4.5% | 5.5% | 7% |
| Tether (USDT) | 8% | 8.5% | 10% | 12% |
| USD Coin (USDC) | 8% | 8.5% | 10% | 12% |
Interest earning rates at Celsius depend on the cryptocurrency deposited and the users tier level based on the amount of CEL they own. The following rates are for 5 of the same cryptocurrencies as above.
| Cryptocurrency | None | Bronze Tier | Silver Tier | Gold tier | Platinum Tier |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | 5% | 5.5% | 5.75% | 6% | 6.5% |
| Solano (SOL) | 5.75% | 6.33 | 6.61% | 6.9% | 7.48% |
| Polkadot (DOT) | 4.06% | 4.47% | 4.67% | 4.87% | 5.28% |
| Avalanche (AVAX) | 7.53% | 8.28% | 8.66% | 9.04% | 9.79% |
| Tether (USDT) | 4.06% | 4.47% | 4.67% | 4.87% | 5.28% |
| USD Coin (USCD) | 7.1% | 7.81% | 8.17% | 8.52% | 9.23% |
The Nexo platform supports 45 cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. The following are all the digital coins supported by Nexo.
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Ethereum (ETH) | Nexo Token (NEXO) | Tether (USDT) |
| USD Coin (USDC) | Binance Coin (BNB) | Ripple (XRP) | Cardano (ADA) |
| Solana (SOL) | Dogecoin (DOGE) | Polkadot (DOT) | Dai (DAI) |
| Tron (TRX) | Polygon (MATIC) | Avalanche (AVAX) | Cosmos (ATOM) |
| Uniswap (UNI) | Litecoin (LTC) | Chainlink (LINK) | FTX Token (FTT) |
| Gala (GALA) | Stellar (XLM) | Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | ApeCoin (APE) |
| EOS (EOS) | Kusama (KSM) | The Sandbox (SAND) | Lido DAO (LDO) |
| Axie Infinity (AXS) | TrueUSD (TUSD) | Aave (AAVE) | Pax Dollar (USDP) |
| Huobi Token (HT) | Fantom (FTM) | Maker (MKR) | PAX Gold (PAXG) |
| THORChain (RUNE) | Curve DAO (CRV) | Decentraland (MANA) | Ethereum Name Service (ENS) |
| 1inch Network (1INCH) | Near Protocol (NEAR) | SushiSwap (SUSHI) | Optimism (OP) |
| Sweat Economy (SWEAT) |
Nexo supports a total of 43 different cryptocurrencies. These include the US dollar, Euro, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, British pound sterling, Indian rupee, Japanese yen, Mexican peso, Thai baht, Philippine peso and 33 more.
Celsius supports a total of 49 cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. The following are the digital coins found on the Celsius platform.
| SNX | DOT | MATIC | BNT | CEL | 1INCH | XTZ | SUSHI |
| ADA | EOS | AAVE | AVAX | SOL | CRV | ETH | WBTC |
| UNI | ETC | BSV | DASH | LTC | LINK | COMP | BCH |
| BTC | XLM | BAT | UMA | ZEC | OMG | ZRX | KNC |
| MKR | CVX | MANA | YFI | BADGER | PAXG | TUSD | GUSD |
| PAX | USDC | USDT | BUSD | ZUSD | TGBP | TAUD | THKD |
| TCAD |
As far as fiat currencies go, Celsius supports the US dollar in addition to another 18 fiat currencies such as GBP and Euro through fiat on-ramp partners.
Nexo stores digital assets in a combination of hot and cold storage in a variety of geographical locations through third-party custodial services like BitGo, Ledger Vault, Fireblocks, Bakkt and others. Currently their custodial assets are insured for $775 million. They use two factor authentication (2FA) as well as biometric identification and whitelisting to help protect user’s information and assets.
Celsius uses third-party custodians such as PrimeTrust and Fireblock for storing depositor’s crypto assets. They use a combination of hot and cold storage and maintain hot wallet insurance for loss of user’s funds. They also make use of 2FA, biometrics and whitelisting withdrawal addresses for better security.
There aren’t a lot of fees to worry about at Nexo. There are no loan/credit-line origination fees, exchange fees or deposit fees. For crypto purchased with a credit card there is a 1.49% fee for residents of EU countries and a 3.49% fee for residents of non-EU countries. Nexo does apply some withdrawal fees which vary depending on the cryptocurrency. However, depending on the loyalty level users can receive from 1-5 free cryptocurrency withdrawals every month.
Celsius is pretty much a fee free platform. The only fees charged are for crypto purchases made through the platforms third-party providers and range from 0.1% to 3.5%.
It is easy to get started on both Nexo and Celsius. On both platforms users can open account simply by providing an email address and password. However, to deposit funds and make use of the services users will have to provide some personal information and complete a KYC verification process but this only takes a few minutes. Both platforms are intuitive and quite easy to use.
Just as with their desktop platforms the mobile apps from Nexo and Celsius are easy to use and you can do pretty much everything from them that can be done from a desktop computer. Celsius and Nexo both offer a mobile app for iOS and Android devices which can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Android Google Play Store.
Nexo is available in most countries around the world although there are a few countries where they don’t operate. These are Syria, North Korea, Bulgaria, Cuba, The Central African Republic, Iran, Estonia and the U.S, states of New York and Vermont.
Due to filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy relief, freezing users accounts and suspending services, Celsius isn’t available in any country. When operating they were available in most U.S states and the majority of countries around the world with the exception of New Zealand, Israel, Japan and any countries sanctioned by the U.S, U.K or EU including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Lebanon, Syria and Sudan.
The Nexo wallet is a custodial wallet which allows users to manage all their assets from one place without those assets actually being stored in the same place. All the user’s information is provided in a complete and easy-to-understand manner so that they can easily manage their crypto assets.
The Celsius wallet is currently suspended.
Nexo Pros
Nexo Cons
Celsius Pros
Celsius Cons
Given that Celsius has suspended services and file for bankruptcy, Nexo is the obvious choice between the two platforms. Even before Celsius encountered their difficulties, Nexo edged them out in most areas. Nexo has competitive interest rates for both crypto-backed loans and interest earning account and offers a large selection of trading pairs making them a good choice for a platform to provide crypto financial services.
Table of Contents
Nexo and Celsius have similar interest earning accounts that offer competitive rates with the best returns being available to users that own the respective platforms native token. Nexo has slightly better rates but the major difference is that service at Celsius are suspended.
Nexo has slightly better rates than Celsius overall for interest earning accounts, has competitive rates for crypto-backed loans and offers far more trading pairs. Celsius has also currently suspended services and has filed for bankruptcy.
Nexo is available in most countries with the exception of Syria, North Korea, Bulgaria, Cuba, The Central African Republic, Iran, Estonia and the U.S, states of New York and Vermont. Operations at Celsius are currently suspended.
