Stay Ahead of Inflation and Let Celsius Network Security Keep Your Assets Safe

The threats to our digital security seem to worsen every day. Gigantic hacks at businesses that contain our personal and financial information are an annual occurrence. Crypto networks are vulnerable too.

That’s why I appreciate the Celsius Network security system.

Celsius takes my security (and yours, when you become a member) seriously enough that it purchased GK8, a high-security custodial platform for banks and decentralized finance protocols.

Celsius is not without its own third-party risks though. In late 2021, Celsius lost about $55 million in the hack of the BadgerDAO decentralized platform.

So it’s important to remember that no matter how secure we make our own offline and digital lives, we and our money are always at risk when we use any third party.

Click here to learn more about crypto security in general.

What Celsius Network Does to Ensure Our Security

In addition to continuous monitoring of the entire platform, Celsius provides each Celsian with several security options. To reach them, click on your name in the top right corner of any web page after you log in.

On the narrow overlay that appears, click on Security.

Click on Security to reach and set the available options.

The overlay will disappear, and you’ll see your Security Score, along with two sections, Core Security and Account Activity.

Once you set up your security options (either the PIN or the 2FA — 2-factor authentication), your Security Score will be green.

Core Security

Core Security has four settings:

Password – Here you can change your password if you ever think yours is at risk. You’ll need to use your PIN code or your Google Authenticator 2FA to complete the password change.

This ensures that you, and only you, can change your password.

If you’re not good at remembering passwords, I urge you to invest in a password management system like LastPass or 1Password.

This will let you create a unique and strong password for every website you use. And you’ll never again have to worry about remembering passwords.

You just have to remember one, to your password manager. Be sure to make that one very secure.

PIN Code – As a minimum security precaution, Celsius requires that you create a 6-digit PIN when you set up your account. Similar to the 4-digit PIN you have on your debit card, the Celsius PIN is an extra layer of protection.

You’ll need it whenever you’re making a transaction, including withdrawing crypto from Celsius, swapping crypto, or trying to buy some using either of the methods that are available to you. (Purchase options are only available on the mobile app. They’re not available on the website.)

HODL mode – If you activate HODL mode, you won’t be able to make any withdrawals or swaps, or use CELpay to send crypto to any other Celsian. You also won’t be able to whitelist any withdrawal addresses (more on that below).

If you activate HODL mode, you’ll need to deactivate it before withdrawing any funds. There’s then a 24-hour unlock period. Once the 24 hours are up, you can withdraw or swap your crypto.

So keep that in mind if you think you’ll need some crypto in a hurry at some point.

You don’t need to activate HODL mode to achieve a high security score.

Two-factor Authentication – Once activated, 2FA replaces the 6-digit PIN code you entered when you created your account.

As I mentioned above, 2FA requires the use of a smartphone app called Google Authenticator. You can download the app from the App Store (iPhones) or Google Play (Android phones).

Once you have your PIN or activated 2FA, you should see your Security Score turn to all green, like this:

All green means your security is strong on the Celsius website.

Account Activity

Celsius also reports on your most recent ten logins. It provides the date and the time of each login, and how you did it.

If you ever see anything other than Successful Login (using Email+Password), contact Celsius immediately, as someone may have gained access to your account using some other method.

Celsius also reports, for each login:

• the IP address (which should rarely change, unless you’re traveling)
• the Location (a country)
• the Device (if you used your phone to access your account), and
• the OS version (Mac OS, Windows, iOS, or Android)

Whitelisting External Addresses

If you ever want to withdraw funds from your Celsius account, you’ll need to add the address for the destination account (a wallet, exchange or another Celsian) into Celsius. This is called whitelisting.

You can’t use a newly whitelisted address for 24 hours. This ensures that no one can gain access to your account somehow and then drain all your crypto.

You can whitelist addresses from the Send page, or from the Coins section that’s just above the Security section discussed earlier.

In the screenshot below, I’ve whitelisted a Bitcoin address, and given it the Nickname of OKcoin. I used this address to send some BTC to my Okcoin account so that I could purchase another token with it.

Before sending crypto anywhere, you must whitelist the destination address. This security precaution takes 24 hours.

In the screenshot, you’ll also see the option to Add Address for ETH (Ethereum), USDC (a stablecoin) and CEL (the Celsius token) should I ever want to withdraw some or all of those tokens from my account.

I can also Edit or Remove the current Bitcoin address. Why would I want to do that? Because I can only have one whitelisted address per coin or token type.

So if I want to withdraw some Bitcoin to, say, my Coinbase account, I’ll need to remove the Okcoin address and add the Coinbase address.

Then I’ll have to wait 24 hours until that address becomes available to use for the withdrawal.

Security 101 Article From Celsius

Celsius published an article, called Security 101, on its blog. The article outlines steps you can take to make your digital life more secure.

It's available here.

Security Tips Video From Celsius

Here’s a video from Celsius Security about the three most important security tips.