Celsius (CEL) has made a remarkable comeback, surging 143% in price today, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $117 million. This sudden growth has led to a frenzy in the cryptocurrency market, with some speculating that it may be a pump-and-dump scenario. Despite this, CEL's market capitalization has risen to $48 million, although it still remains outside the top 500 cryptocurrencies.

The crypto community is showing increased interest in CEL, with on-chain data indicating support for high-volume altcoins. CEL's price has risen above $1.30, with a 7-day gain of around 90% and a 30-day gain of 140%. Whale activities have also contributed to the increase in volume, with market makers closely following CEL in anticipation of a further rise. The remarkable growth in price has opened up opportunities for investors to turn to Celsius.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has experienced a 1.48% increase, trading at $68,500, with a market capitalization of $1.3 billion and a 29% drop in trading volume to $29 billion. The sudden surge in Celsius has surprised the community, with many discussing whether the price increase will continue and to what extent it will go. It's worth noting that CEL's all-time high is at $8.

The Celsius Network is a centralized finance (CeFi) loan provider and retail savings platform for interest-bearing and -borrowing accounts with a fiat on-ramp. The system is based around its native token, CEL, an Ethereum ERC-20 utility token that allows users to get loans, make payments, and receive rewards. Celsius Network works with a community-first mandate, returning 80% of its income to customers through increased savings and borrowing profits.

Thanks to competitive interest rates, low fees, and a strong community, the platform has seen significant growth since its inception. The network has over one million registered members and has loaned $25.2 billion in assets, making it one of the market's best-performing peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols to date. Furthermore, the network has distributed over $929 million in yield rewards. Alex Mashinsky and Daniel Leon launched Celsius Network in 2017, with the aim of providing a completely community-oriented alternative to conventional financial institutions.

The network began as an Ethereum-based platform but has since incorporated Cardano into it. Through its website and smartphone app, anybody can lend and borrow assets in the form of stablecoins. Celsius Network issued its native coin CEL in March 2018 with an initial supply of 650 million tokens. After successfully collecting $50 million in its initial coin offering (ICO) on 15 March 2018, Celsius launched its wallet in early 2019. The wallet enables users to deposit coins as security for loans in dollars and lend their crypto to earn interest.

Since its launch, the lending platform has seen considerable growth, with the number of active users increasing by about 800% in the first year and at a weekly average growth of 3.06%. By February 2021, Celsius had over 400,000 users and $9 billion in community deposits. That same year, it managed to raise $450 million in equity funding from investors, including Canada's second-largest pension fund Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec. In January 2022, it was reported that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had opened up an inquiry into some of the high-yield crypto lending products offered by the Celsius Network, as well as those by Gemini Trust and Voyager Digital.