Around July last year (2020) I wrote a short article where I summarized the details of the most well known Centralized Finance (CeFi) interest earning platforms available on the market. Since then a lot has happened with the market and we're well and truly in the midst of a bull run. Personally, I've maintained using these products throughout the last year as a sure and steady way of building my portfolio, I think of them as banking for crypto. I get that a lot of folks prefer to go down the DeFi route for bigger rates. However, for me CeFi has its place in the market and offers a slightly safer and easier to access option for newer individuals in the crypto sphere.
Just recently a family member let me know they had invested a while back in some BTC, after I got over being thoroughly impressed we discussed where they were holding their funds. My first thought was they were going to say "on Coinbase". They didn't instead they said in a cold wallet....well that one is on me, I will never again assume that folks don't have crypto-smarts. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we discussed interest earning accounts and I pointed them to my old article (with the caveat that it was a little out of data). This in turn led me to take a look at my own holding and figure out if I was still putting funds in the best places to make solid returns, turns out I wasn't. So with that in mind I decided to do an updated version of the previous article to share with you all. Comparing these products can be a pain in the neck, so I've done most of the hard work for you. Hope you find it useful.
Key Fact Comparisons
Rather than lifting out just a few of the products I've gone for including as much information as I could find currently. Please bear in mind these rates are subject to change but are accurate at the time of writing. Check out the reference section at the end of the article to find links to the company sites. If you see "?" this means it wasn't readily available info, "-" refers to N/A items and then "Y or N" refers to items where, depending on your set up you may have the option to do one or the other. Finally, please note that I displayed the lower tier of CRYPTO.COM rates as these are the most widely accessible and comparable with other platform rates.
Crypto: Popular Trio
To start off I've separated out three of the most well know or widely available cryptocurrencies on the market Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).
Crypto: DeFi Favorites
It should be no surprise that a number of DeFi governance tokens have become extremely valuable and as such many CeFi platforms have started offering competitive rates for holding them.
Crypto: Top of the Charts
Although BTC is well out in front of most others, in terms of market dominance, the 2-15 slots seems to be in a constant state of flux. As such I've lifted out these as some of the most popular projects/best preforming cryptocurrencies on the market.
Crypto: Other
Finally, as well as the more widely know cryptos out there we've also got a variety of additional saving choices available.
Stablecoins
Moving away from traditional cryptocurrencies stablecoins are often a top choice for passively earning whilst maintaining reduced market volatility. As such all of the platforms offer at least USDT (by far one of the most widely used stablecoin), with most platforms also offering a range of key alternatives.
Fiat and Gold Tokens
Next up we have access to interest earning products specifically for Fiat and Gold Tokens
Native Tokens
Last but by no means least Nexo, Celsius Network, Crypto.com and CakeDeFi all offer savings products for their own tokens. Note as well that some of these come with specific benefits as detailed below.
Key Benefits:
- CEL - If savers choose to receive their interest on any of the available tokens/coins in CEL Celsius Network offers a boost (for the most part) on the interest rate earned. Additionally, you can earn 4.86% on CEL tokens, which makes for a nice combo.
- CRO - Crypto.com's native token is predominantly used to unlock both access to better rate and/or give access to the benefits offered from their tiered debit card system. The requirement is to lock in 5000 or more CRO tokens to unlock the relevant benefit levels. This is the best way to get a decent rate with them, but can be costly as an upfront investment
- DFI - These are an ERC-20 token that can be used in the liquidity pools on the platform and also stakes separately. They are also awarded for successful referrals and earn at a massive 37%!
- NEXO - The NEXO token works like a combination of the CEL token and the CRO tokens. Firstly, you can choose to receive a higher interest rate if you select to be paid in NEXO. Secondly, they have a tiered system based on the relative percentage of your portfolio that is held in NEXO tokens. You don't need to stake these, just hold them, and each tier unlocks additional benefits. The levels are 0-1%, 1-5%, 5-10%, >=10%. Additionally, based on the company performance NEXO holder share 30% of the Net Profits as dividends (with increased incentives for longer holders).
Catches and Bonus'
Much as I said in the original article there are a range of benefits and catches for each of the individual platforms so it is important to consider these when making your decisions.
BlockFi
- Bonus - First time sign-up (Use code and deposit $100 of any asset to get $10 in BTC after 30 days) - https://blockfi.com/?ref=39859ca0
- Bonus - 1 Free Crypto withdrawal per calendar month
- Bonus - 1 Free Stablecoin withdrawal per calendar month
- Bonus - Idle crypto and be used to collateralize loans rather than needing to cash out
CakeDeFi
- Bonus - First time sign-up (Use code and deposit $50 of any asset to get $30 in DFI instantly) - https://pool.cakedefi.com?ref=692192
- Catch/Bonus - Base rates are guaranteed, top rates are based on market performance of the underlying assets
- Catch - Lapis (interest earning product name) are done in batches where funds are locked in for 30 days at a time
Celsius Network
- Bonus - First time sign-up (Use code and deposit $200 of any asset to get $30 in BTC after 30 days) - https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/146589688a
- Bonus - Unlimited Free withdrawals
- Bonus - Idle crypto and be used to collateralize loans rather than needing to cash out (some of the best rates on the market, as low as 1%)
- Catch - Best rate only achieved if you choose to earn interest in CEL tokens
Crypto.com
- Bonus/Catch - First time sign-up (Use code and sign up for CRO debit card with 5000 CRO stake for $25 in CRO) - https://platinum.crypto.com/r/689bz2r6w4
- Bonus - CRO debit card offer up to 10% cash back on every day purchases
- Catch - To earn the top rates (from my summaries) you need to stake 5000 MCO and lock in for 3 month. There are intermediate rates for 0, 1 or 3 month lock in funds with and without staking.
- Note - The base rate shown above are the minimum available rates, currently, and are based on not locking in or staking any fund. There are also considerably higher rates if you wish to lock in more (up to 5,000,000) CRO tokens
Nexo
- Bonus - 1 Free Crypto withdrawal per calendar month (more with higher NEXO holdings)
- Bonus - Idle crypto and be used to collateralize loans rather than needing to cash out
- Catch - Best rate only achieved if you choose to earn interest in NEXO tokens and with >=10% NEXO holdings
YouHodler
- Bonus - If you are one who works the markets the Multi-Hodl functionality can boost your savings (see https://www.youhodler.com/turbocharge)
- Catch - Minimum Withdrawal amount is $5 equivalent
All the Best
So based on the info above and my own experience (I currently use all of these platforms for one thing or another). These are my personal opinions of what are the best products for specific features.
- Best BTC rate: BlockFi
- Best if you're like to move fund around: Celsius
- Best for influencers: CakeDeFi/Celsius (great programs that are easy to earn)
- Best for Fiat: YouHodler (factor in withdrawal fees though)
- Best for Stablecoins: YouHodler (factor in withdrawal fees and minimum balance though)
- Best for native token benefits: Nexo
- Best for Options: Celsius
- Best for Richie Rich: Crypto.com (if you are willing to drop a ton on CRO tokens you can get some great benefits and rates)
Final Thoughts
If I had to choose my favorite platform as an everyday earner I'd have to argue Celsius is the way to go. The rates aren't exceptional but the insurance and unlimited free withdrawal give great piece of mind. In case you need to get at your funds quickly, just make sure you've set up a withdrawal address for each token/coin otherwise you have to wait 24hours before they verify the address (gives you 24hours in case someone gets into your account to stop them transferring your fund away though which is nice). Second choice would be BlockFi since it has been a stable source of income for a long time, I just wish they would get that insurance policy, it is making them seem a little outdated.
On the flipside, I'll be honest I don't see Crypto.com as a competitive earning platform for everyday users. It seem to be reserved for those that have money to burn. Instead, this platform for me is the home of my cashback earnings and nothing else. Unless you're willing to part with a lot to get access to the top rates (or you have a lot of funds already) and you are willing to lock in for extend time periods you're not likely to benefit from using the platform really at all. Those withdrawal fees are crazy on Crypto.com (by comparison to the other providers) and can have you losing money if you try use it as in interest saving account. Don't get me wrong, the debit card is great, just the interest earning is lackluster at best!
All in all you can see there are a lot of options, with platforms our performing one another on a crypto-by-crypto basis. There is really no clear winner across the board which is actually good for us (the end users). It means we can spread out our funds into multiple pots and help mitigate any platform related risks. This is exactly what I do, drawing on the strengths of individual platforms to maximize returns across my portfolio without having all my eggs in one basket.
Hope you enjoyed the article and find the summary of these products useful, good luck y'all!
References:https://celsius.network/earn-interest-on-your-crypto/
https://crypto.com/en/earn.html
https://pool.cakedefi.com/
https://nexo.io/earn-crypto
https://www.youhodler.com/earn-crypto
https://blockfi.com/crypto-interest-account/
