The hype: "Lenders have a lot to gain when they join Celsius. The platform pays out rewards as high as a 17% yield. These rewards are calculated by the system based on your loan terms and paid out every Monday."

This is like a junk bond. You get a high yield in exchange for a risk of loss of the principal. So junk bonds require due diligence to price. You don't buy just one kind; you buy a diversified collection in hopes that they don't all go bust at once. In 2008, mortgage-backed securities did all go bust at once.

In crypto land these things are blind pools. Customers have no idea where the pool operator is investing, and to what risks they are exposed. This is why there is a requirement for SEC registration.

That's if it's honest. It might be an out and out Ponzi, like Madoff's.

What the crypto crowd does not seem to get is that none of this is new. These are all old ideas in finance. In the 1920s, retail investors were being offered similar blind pools.