Gemini Earn vs Celsius – Which Platform Is Better?

Last updated on October 15th, 2021

There are many platforms which allow you to earn interest on your crypto.

Both Gemini and Celsius provide you with this option, and both of them are rather reputable companies.

So which platform should you use?

Here’s what you need to know:

The difference between Gemini Earn and Celsius

Celsius allows you to earn interest on 44 currencies, more than Gemini Earn’s 38 currencies. Also, Celsius generally offers you a higher interest rate compared to Gemini Earn (except for some currencies like UNI). Overall, Celsius seems to provide better value if you want to earn interest on your crypto.

Here is an in-depth comparison between these 2 platforms:

Founder

Gemini was founded in New York in 2014.

Gemini is a regulated cryptocurrency exchange that is found in 50+ countries!

Meanwhile, Celsius was founded in 2017 and is also based in New York.

Number of cryptocurrencies

Here are the different cryptocurrencies that you can earn with either platform:

Gemini Earn allows you to deposit 42 different currencies

With Gemini Earn, you are able to earn interest in a variety of cryptocurrencies.

This includes:

1. BTC
2. ETH
3. LTC
4. AAVE
5. LINK
6. ENJ

There are quite a lot of altcoins on this list!

However, the only stablecoin that you can earn interest on is DAI.

Celsius allows you to deposit 44 cryptocurrencies

Similarly, Celsius allows you to deposit 44 currencies onto their platform.

Some currencies that you can earn interest on Celsius, but not on Gemini Earn include:

1. DOT
2. XRP
3. USDT
4. XLM

Buying cryptocurrency

Gemini has a whole ecosystem of crypto services that they can offer you. Apart from their Earn feature, they also allow you to buy crypto on their platform.

There are 2 ways that you can buy crypto on Gemini:

1. Gemini Exchange (i.e. Instant Buy)
2. Gemini Active Trader

Gemini Exchange allows you to buy crypto instantly with some fiat currencies.

However, their fees are extremely high. For every trade that you make, the fees that you’ll be charged start from 1.49%!

You can use Gemini’s Active Trader to lower your fees

If you are looking to lower your fees, you can consider using Gemini’s Active Trader platform instead.

The trading fees you’ll incur will be up to 0.35%, which is more than 4 times lower than the exchange!

The only drawback is that you can’t buy a variety of currencies from these 3 fiat currencies:

1. SGD
2. GBP
3. EUR

You can only buy BTC or ETH with these currencies.

If you want to own other currencies, you’ll need to make at least 2 trades.

For example, you may want to buy LINK. You’ll have to make 2 trades from your SGD:

1. SGD to BTC
2. BTC to LINK

Meanwhile, you can use USD to buy a large variety of currencies.

Celsius allows you to purchase crypto too

You can purchase crypto on the Celsius app too.

You can do this via 2 ways:

1. Credit or debit card
2. Bank transfer

However, the fees that you incur can be pretty hefty:

Payment Provider	Fees
Wyre	0.1% (ACH transfer, US only)
Coinify	0.5% (manual bank transfer) 2% (EU credit card) 3.5% (non-EU credit card)

Unless you are staying in the US, it may be better to purchase your crypto on another exchange first. Then, you can deposit your crypto into Celsius from that exchange.

Interest rates

The main thing you’ll be interested in is the interest rates that either account offers you.

Gemini Earn only allows you to earn interest in the currency that you’ve deposited.

Meanwhile, Celsius allows you to earn interest in 2 ways:

1. In-kind reward (same currency that you own)
2. Interest in CEL token

Celsius allows you to earn a higher interest rate, if you choose to earn it in CEL tokens.

However, the option to earn in CEL is not available if you’re from the United States.

Here are the interest rates for some currencies that you can deposit on both platforms:

	Gemini Earn	Celsius CEL APY	Celsius In-Kind APY
BTC	2.05%	4.40%	6.20% (Up to 1 BTC) 3.51% (After 1 BTC)
LINK	4.08%	3.77%	3.00%
ETH	2.05%	6.35%	5.35% (Up to 100 ETH) 5.05% (After 100 ETH)
LTC	2.77%	5.12%	4.08%
PAXG	1.81%	6.92%	5.50%
AAVE	3.05%	6.11%	4.86%
ZRX	1.81%	2.21%	1.77%
UNI	3.59%	3.13%	2.50%

For most currencies, Celsius provides you with better rates.

Currencies that Gemini Earn provide higher rates for are LINK, ZRX (for In-Kind APY) and UNI.

Interest rates may change

Like all other accounts, the interest that you earn on your crypto is not guaranteed.

Both accounts reserve the right to change the yields at any time.

Gemini did not explicitly state how often they may change their interest rates. This makes them slightly less transparent on this issue.

For Celsius, the interest that you earn changes on a weekly basis. This is rather volatile, and it may fluctuate quite a bit.

Celsius offers extra rewards based on the amount of CEL you own

Celsius also allows you to earn even more interest if you’re holding the CEL tokens. This is based on the amount of CEL that you own in your Celsius portfolio.

Depending on the amount of CEL that you hold, you are able to earn even more interest!

How you earn your rewards

For Gemini Earn, your interest is calculated and compounded daily. With this daily compounding effect, you are able to receive even higher returns!

However, the interest will only be credited to you at the start of each month.

Meanwhile, Celsius calculates your rewards for each week, between Friday to the next Friday.

Your interest is calculated, and then paid on the following Monday.

As such, Gemini Earn may compound your interest even faster since it offers daily compounding.

Borrowers of both platforms

How can both of these platforms afford to pay you such a high interest rate on your crypto?

Gemini loans out your funds to their approved borrowers. So far, Gemini’s only approved borrower is Genesis Global Capital.

You may want to take extra caution when placing your funds with Gemini Earn. This is because of this clause in their Terms of Service.

In the event that a borrower defaults with your cryptocurrency, you may not be able to get back your funds!

Moreover, Gemini does not require borrowers to post collateral when they take a loan.

This may mean that your loans may be much riskier. The borrower does not have much penalties if they decide to default on the loan.

As such, you’ll need to consider if it’s worth taking this risk when lending out your crypto with Gemini Earn!

Celsius secures your loan with collateral

Celsius lends your crypto to their approved borrowers. Your crypto is also secured with collateral too.

Celsius also claims to return up to 80% of the interest that they earn from lending your coins. This allows them to offer such high interest rates to you.

Lending your crypto out with Celsius may be safer compared to Gemini Earn. This is because your loan with Gemini Earn may not be secured.

Deposit

For Gemini Earn, there is no minimum deposit required. You can deposit any amount of crypto that you earn immediately!

I managed to send 0.000022 LINK into my Gemini Earn account, even though it is worth less than a few cents.

Celsius also does not have any minimum deposit.

This means that you can deposit any amount into either account, and still earn interest on it!

No deposit fees

You are also not charged any deposit fees for either account.

However, you’ll need to consider the fees you’ll incur when sending your crypto from an exchange!

This depends on the exchange that you’re using, and some of them may be very hefty.

No lock-in period

Both Gemini Earn and Celsius do not have any lock-in periods. This means that you are able to freely withdraw your crypto any time you wish!

For Gemini Earn, you should be able to receive your funds almost instantly.

However, there may be certain instances where it’ll take up to 5 business days before you are able to withdraw your funds from the account.

Withdrawal fees

Gemini Earn does not charge you any withdrawal fees when you withdraw from their platform.

Furthermore, Gemini does not charge you any withdrawal fees for your first 10 withdrawals each month.

Celsius also does not charge you any fees when withdrawing from your account.

Both platforms will really help you to save on the hefty network fees!

Taking loans

Celsius allows you to take a loan on their platform.

Here are the currencies that you can loan:

Type of Currency	Currencies Available
Crypto	TUSD, GUSD, PAX, USDC, USDT ERC20, DAI
Fiat	USD

To take a loan, you would need to have some cryptocurrency kept as collateral.

The amount of interest that you pay depends on 3 factors:

1. The loan tenure (6-36 months)
2. Loan to Value (25% – 50%)
3. Whether you’re paying your loan in CEL or Cash

You can use the in-app calculator to determine the amount you’ll need to pay in interest.

Meanwhile, you are unable to take a loan on Gemini’s platform.

Platform

Gemini has both a web platform,

as well as a mobile app.

Meanwhile, Celsius is a mobile app-only platform.

Even though Celsius has a website, you can’t login from the platform.

I do find Celsius’ app to be quite laggy at times. This may lead to a slightly frustrating experience for you.

Security

If you intend to leave your funds with either account, you will be more at ease if they are secure.

So what measures do both of these accounts have?

Gemini stores the majority of your currencies in a cold storage

Gemini claims it is one of the most secure crypto exchanges.

Majority of the assets on the exchange are stored in an offline cold wallet.

Moreover, the remaining funds in the hot wallet is insured.

Our policy insures against the theft of Digital Assets from our Hot Wallet that results from a security breach or hack, a fraudulent transfer, or employee theft.

Gemini

It seems that Gemini’s owners are quite confident about the security of their platform!

Celsius is insured, but only for assets under their custody

Celsius does not disclose the security measures that they have.

However, the assets under their custody are insured by Fireblocks and PrimeTrust.

Your assets are only insured when they are under the custody of Celsius. Once they are loaned out to borrowers, your assets are no longer insured!

However, Celsius is a pretty well established company. Its services are available in more than 100 countries around the world.

As such, I believe that your assets should be rather secure with this platform!

Crypto lending is risky

The reason why both platforms are offering such high interest rates on your crypto is because this is quite a risky business.

Cryptocurrency is very volatile, and it may fluctuate in price by a lot!

The amount of crypto that you have in your portfolio really depends on your risk profile.

As such, you should decide if you are willing to take the risks when it comes to investing in any cryptocurrency!

Verdict

Here is a comparison between Gemini Earn and Celsius:

	Gemini Earn	Celsius
Year Founded	2014	2017
HQ	New York	New York
Number of Currencies	38	44
Buying Cryptocurrency	Available (via Exchange or Active Trader)	Available
Interest Rates	In-Kind only	In-Kind CEL (higher interest)
Accrual of Interest	Compounded daily	Every Monday
Borrowers	Genesis	Approved borrowers
Type of loans	Unsecured	Secured with collateral
Deposit Fees	None	None
Minimum Deposit	None	None
Lock-in Period	None	None
Withdrawal Fees	None to Gemini platform 1st 10 withdrawals from Gemini are free	Free withdrawals
Loans	Absent	Present
Platform	Web and mobile platforms	Mobile app only
Security	Cold storage + hot wallet	Insured by Fireblocks and PrimeTrust

So which platform should you choose?

Overall, Celsius seems to be the better platform, because of these few reasons:

1. Larger variety of currencies available (44 vs 38)
2. Higher interest rates offered for the common cryptocurrencies (except for LINK, ZRX and UNI)
3. Loans are secured with collateral, while Gemini’s loans may be unsecured

The major advantage that Gemini has is its convenience. If you bought crypto on Gemini, you can immediately start earning interest with their Earn feature.

However, you may need to send your crypto that you own to Celsius. This may cost you quite a bit in terms of your withdrawal fees.

Nevertheless, Celsius may still prove to be the better platform for you to earn interest on your crypto!

Conclusion

Both platforms offer an alternative way of earning rewards on your crypto compared to staking.

In the end, the platform that you choose may depend on these few factors:

1. The currency you wish to earn interest on
2. The safety of your funds
3. The interest rate that you’ll receive

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Are you passionate about personal finance and want to earn some flexible income?