Celsius vs. Voyager: Crypto Interest Account Apps Review

• Celsius vs Voyager: Key Information
• Company Bios: Celsius vs. Voyager
• Feature #1: Interest Rates: Who Had Higher APY, Celsius or Voyager?
• How Do Celsius and Voyager Make Money?
• Feature #2: Payouts and Withdrawals
• Feature #3: Celsus vs. Voyager Security
• Celsius vs. Voyager: Standout Features
• The Court of Public Opinion: Celsius Network vs. Voyager Reddit
• Can You Trust Celsius Network and Voyager?
• Celsius Network vs. Voyager: Which is the Better Crypto Interest Account?

Celsius vs. Voyager was a comparison often made by people looking for a cryptocurrency interest account. Both Celsius and Voyager allowed users to earn interest on their idle cryptocurrency assets, but both Celsius Network and Voyager declared bankruptcy in July 2022 after pausing user withdrawals. 

Founded in 2017, Celsius Network was considered one of the “blue chip” cryptocurrency borrowing and lending platforms. Founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky claimed to have created Celsius to democratize the lending landscape and allow users to earn interest on their deposited cryptocurrency, or borrow money by placing their crypto as collateral. 

Voyager Invest started as a cryptocurrency exchange; Voyager Invest Ltd. is a publicly traded company, which was a rarity among cryptocurrency interest accounts. The platform also allowed users to earn interest on their digital assets. 

The following Celsius vs. Voyager review goes through the nitty-gritty of each unique business model, and the pros and cons of each option. 

Celsius vs Voyager: Key Information

Company Bios: Celsius vs. Voyager

Alex Mashinsky and Daniel Leon created Celsius in 2017 and raised approximately $100 million through private funding rounds. Celsius managed about $16 billion in community assets and had around 850,000 users.

Voyager was also launched in 2017. It was founded by Gaspard de Dreuzy, Oscar Salazar, Philip Eytan, Serge Kreiker, and Stephen Ehrlich.  The company has raised just over $100 million in private funding. Voyager IPOd on February 11th, 2019 on the Canadian Stock Exchange. 

Both companies declared bankruptcy in July 2022 after pausing customer withdrawals due to unrelated events:

Voyager issued a non-collateralized $675M loan to Three Arrows Capital, which went under.

Celsius found itself in severely illiquid positions with tanking DeFi prices, and was found to have grotesquely mismanaged user funds.

Feature #1: Interest Rates: Who Had Higher APY, Celsius or Voyager?

Rate changes: Celsius changed its interest rates every week, and Voyager changed its rates every month. 

Bitcoin:

• Celsius offered 6.2% APY for a user’s first BTC and 3.51% for any additional BTC.
• Voyager offered 5.75% APY on all of a customer’s BTC but requires users to maintain a minimum balance of 0.01 BTC to earn any interest.

Ethereum:

• Celsius offered 5.35% APY for a customer’s first 100 ETH and 5.05% for any additional ETH.
• Voyager offered 4.6% APY on ETH and requires a user to maintain a minimum balance of 0.5 ETH to earn interest.

Altcoins

Stablecoins

How Do Celsius and Voyager Make Money?

Celsius claimed to make money by lending out the assets that it holds for a greater interest rate than what it pays out to users. For example, it might lend out Bitcoin at a rate of 9%, but it pays users a rate of 6.2%. However, it was actually participating in a variety of DeFi and NFT-related plays, which was its downfall in the 2022 bear market. 

There are some risks inherent to this revenue-generating activity. But Celsius claimed to over-collateralize its loans, which makes defaults relatively unlikely.

Voyager generates profit with a hidden spread that it employs when users trade crypto on the platform. The company’s CEO claims Voyager can use its hidden-spread system without impacting its customers’ profitability.

However, real-world results indicate this isn’t exactly true. A wide range of Redditors and reviewers report that Voyager’s hidden-spread system does cost them money.

For example, it might quote someone a price of $32,000 for 1 BTC. If the user makes the purchase, Voyager may actually only end up paying $31,975 for the BTC. The company would make $25 on the transaction.

The downside with this approach is that users who buy cryptocurrency through Voyager lose money instantly on any investment they make if it uses a hidden spread.

For example, if Voyager’s hidden spread is 0.5%, that means they’re essentially charging you 0.5% more than the market value for your purchase. If you tried to instantly sell the coin, you would be down 0.5% on the investment.

Feature #2: Payouts and Withdrawals

Celsius paid users the interest they earn every Monday. For most of the company’s history, Celsius let users withdraw funds whenever they wanted without extra fees. However, suddenly in June 2022, Celsius froze all customer withdrawals to “stabilize company operations.”

Voyager only paid out interest monthly. Voyager didn’t allow users to withdraw cryptocurrency assets– they must sell them for USD. This can incur a potential tax liability.

Feature #3: Celsus vs. Voyager Security

Celsius uses a system called multiparty computation (MPC) to secure its users’ funds. This is average for the cryptocurrency interest account industry.

Celsius Network included user-facing security features, including:

• 2-factor authentication
• PINs
• Photo and video security
• Biometric security options
• Email and manual verifications for withdrawals

Voyager wasn’t clear about its security practices. The company has FDIC insurance for up to $250,000 of its users’ USD funds. But, like every other cryptocurrency interest account provider, it doesn’t offer insurance for cryptocurrency assets. The company offered 2-factor authentication but it doesn’t advertise any additional security features for its users.

Celsius vs. Voyager: Standout Features

Celsius’ standout feature was the company’s native cryptocurrency asset, CEL. Users who chose to borrow and make payments with CEL can receive up to a 25% discount on interest. International users also have the option of accepting interest payments in CEL instead of the assets they deposit, often enabling them to earn a higher interest rate.

Voyager also had a native token, VGX. The company offered “interest boosts”, which provide an additional 1% APR on certain coins, which change throughout the year. Users must hold at least 2,500 VGX to qualify.

The values of both tokens plummeted upon news of the troubles in 2022.

The Court of Public Opinion: Celsius Network vs. Voyager Reddit

While Celsius and Voyager both enjoyed stellar reputations for most of their existence, they quickly lost favor with the cryptocurrency world upon freezing withdrawals. Both projects are looked at disdainful and pilloried for their lack of proper risk management, lack of disclosure, and wreckless behavior with user funds.

Can You Trust Celsius Network and Voyager?

No.

Celsius and Voyager were regarded as trustworthy cryptocurrency interest account platforms for the bulk of their history, but they lost it upon freezing customer withdrawals. 

Celsius Network vs. Voyager: Which is the Better Crypto Interest Account?

Neither Celsius Network nor Voyager are worthy of your deposits and are currently in bankruptcy proceedings.