Insane Crypto Bonuses! [Warning]

06/16/2022 Update: Few hours after I posted my last warning, Celsius has paused all withdrawals. They may or may not file for bankruptcy, only time will tell.

06/11/2022 Warning: Due to current FUD surrounding Celsius, I suggest not bothering with this signup bonus for the time being. It may all be nothing but the chances that these promos won’t be available in the future are slim…so no need to rush.

11/27/2021 Update: added $5k promo as well as updated rates and promo requirements.

A lot of crypto signups tend to me meh, for example you get mere $10 signup bonus for signing up for Coinbase (which you should still do because of their beast of a debit card as well as their learn program), $25 for Crypto.com, etc, so when a crypto company offers an elevated $50 bitcoin (BTC) in referral bonus, head start to turn. When that same company starts to offer thousands of dollar in crypto bonus, it becomes increasingly difficult to overlook.

The elevated $50 bonus is easy to achieve without engaging in the fluctuation of the crypto market at all. You can read more about in my beginner friendly guide to getting this $50. I provide a lot of detail so if you are new to crypto, you can learn a lot off it. Or you can just try it out on your own and the process isn’t too bad. Anyway, the referral bonus isn’t the focus of this post. Instead, I would like to talk about other additional bonuses you can have.

$40 and $500 in Cardano (ADA) for Holding ADA [4.06% APY on ADA]

Cardona (ADA) is currently the #3 crypto currency by marketcap, right behind Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

You can transfer in $400 worth of ADA to get $40 in ADA or $20k worth of ADA to get $500 worth of ADA.

You MUST enter the promo code before transferring in the money.

CODE	DEPOSIT	RECEIVE	Lock Period	Eligible
ADA40	$400 in ADA	$40 in ADA	30 days	all users
ADA500	$20k in ADA	$500 in ADA	90 days	all users

Right now, Celsius is paying 4.06% APY on ADA holding.

Transferring ADA out of an exchange is fairly cheap. I was charged 1 ADA as fee in two exchanges, including Binance, while Coinbase seems to have charged me very little fee. You can see in the right screenshot that 66.18 ADA was sent and on the bottom of left screen you can see 66 ADA was received.

As you can see in the first screenshot above, it is okay to meet $400 threshold in multiple chunks.

$10, $50, $150, and $600 in BTC for Holding Stable Coin [8.88% APY on USDC]

You can currently get $10, $50, and $600 in BTC for holding $50, $200, and $25k of USDC/USDT respectively. Both USDC and USDT are stablecoin, i.e. 1 USDC (or USDT) is supposed to be $1.

You MUST enter the promo code before transferring in the money.

CODE	DEPOSIT	RECEIVE	Lock Period	Eligible
STABLE10	$50 in USDC/USDT	$10 in BTC	30 days	all users
STABLE50	$200 in USDC/USDT	$50 in BTC	30 days	all users
STABLE600	$25k in USDC/USDT	$600 in BTC	90 days	all users
CELSIUSCARES	$5k in supported asset	$150	60 days	all users

Right now, Celsius pays 10.02% APY on USDC (or USDT) while it pays 6.20 APY on BTC.

Can you Stack These Promos?

You can apply one promo, deposit required amount, wait few days for bonus to get locked in (you can see this easily in the app), then repeat the whole thing all over again with another promo.

Having said that I have successfully stacked $50 signup bonus with $40 promo simultaneously with the same amount of deposit. However, I don’t think this works anymore.

9/17/2021 Update: I have successfully triggered two promos ($50 for $250 USDC transfer and $10 for $50 USDC transfer) by sending a net $250 (see left screenshot below).

9/23/2021 Update: I have successfully triggered three promos ($50 referral bonus for sending $400 worth of crypto + above two promos) at once by sending $650 USDC (see right screenshot on top).

11/18/2021 Update: You can no longer send one sum of money to trigger multiple promos at once. Now you’re have a deposit for each promo. Also, the promo you apply first gets triggered first.

Can You Buy Crypto Within Celsius?

Yes. You can link your bank account to purchase crypto in Celsius. This purchase is apparently made through Gem (something like Plaid) and the cheapest (and obviously the slowest) option is ACH transfer with an unfortunate 0.1% in fees. You can read more about fees regarding buying within the Celsius app in their official site.

0.1% fee may seem like a lot but in crypto, it isn’t terrible. You can easily negate 0.1% fee with whatever interest you will acquire in 30 days of holding cryptos in Celsius. If you want to a no fee option, look at the next section.

What Exchange to Use to Transfer Crypto into Celsius ?

Use whatever you already have. If you have never signed up for an exchange then I recommend trying big exchanges like Coinbase and Binance US. The prior is now a public company so it might be deemed “safer”.

However, your typical exchanges will not cover withdrawal fee. If you wish to eliminate withdrawal fee, then I suggest trying BlockFi and/or Nexo.

BlockFi allows 1 free crypto withdrawal and 1 free stablecoin withdrawal per calendar month. This means you can buy X amount of crypto in BlockFi, transfer to Celsius wallet, and get exactly X amount in Celsius wallet.

If you want to pay 0 fee in your initial investment, then you may want to buy USDC at BlockFi and withdraw to Celsius. Once you have consumed promotions (at BlockFi and Celsius) withdraw all USDC to BlockFi/Coinbase, sell USDC for cash, and finally withdraw to your bank account. This may sound like a lot but once you have these accounts setup (which you should do if you want to maximize crypto rewards in general) it will eventually become almost second nature to you.

On the other hand, Nexo’s basic loyalty tier allows for 1 free crypto withdrawal per calendar month. The caveat with Nexo is that you cannot link to a bank account so you will first need to transfer crypto into Nexo. However, this is easily done with minimal to no fee as Nexo will accept XLM (XLM has more or less no fee and transfers instantly) and allows you to trade for USDC (trading will incur fee).

Both Nexo and BlockFi give 8% APY on USDC.

A yet another alternative is the Fold Card (review here) which allows you to withdraw BTC acquired through cashback for free. Obviously don’t signup for the Fold card just for this but if you have acquired enough reward through Fold, then this could be an easy way to trigger the bonus.

What is the Fee for Transferring Out?

Zero. Celsius pays transfer out fees. In other words, if you transfer out 20 ADA from Celsius, the wallet you will send it to will get 20 ADA.

Other Promos

There are a few other promos that I will briefly mention.

1. BNB40 – not available in US.
2. HOLD500 – deposit $25k of any asset, hodl for 90 days, and get $500 in BTC. This promo is only available for new users.
3. PAXG60 – deposit $400 in PAXG, hodl for 30 days, and get $60 in PAXG. This promo is only available for new users.
4. PAXG600 – deposit $25k in PAXG, hodl for 90 days, and get $600 in PAXG. This promo is only available for new users.
5. Unit60 – deposit $400 of UNI, hodl for 30 days, and get $60 in UNI. This promo is only available for new users.

Unless you are going to make use of the promo, it is probably not a good idea to entry them.

Closing Thoughts

Obviously the $20-25kk deposit are a little insane but if you already have $20k on ADA, it might be worthwhile trying Celsius. Otherwise, stick to $10-$50 promos like I am.

If you are a newbie to crypto, I would also recommend sticking to promos that are satisfied by stable coins (i.e. referral promo, STABLE10, and STABLE50 promo).