Top 5 High Yield Crypto Accounts: A Review[July 2022]

Inflation is on the rise, effectively dwindling the purchasing power of money in our bank accounts. Given a CPI (Consumer Price Index) of 8.6% which was recently announced — the highest level in more than 4 decades —  suffice to say that any savings account that isn’t paying an interest rate more than this is not doing any justice to upholding the value of the money stored in it. Stock markets and real estate apart, such high yields can only be achieved in the context of cryptocurrencies, which is as exciting as it is perplexing a realm to maneuver given the many scams and pitfalls that cripple the industry. In fact, the recent downfall of Terra has triggered a cascade of events that have led to diminishing cryptocurrency returns on a variety of CeFi and DeFi platforms. I have compiled a list of 5 CeFi platforms worthy of mention, that currently offer the best interest rates on your idle cryptocurrencies.

Nexo

Nexo is a giant digital assets institution offering instant crypto loans, daily earning on assets, exchange, with services in 40+ fiat currencies in more than 200 jurisdictions. A transparent fintech company which is licensed and regulated, Nexo boasts of a strong fundamental business model with a $775,000,000 insurance protection by BitGo and Ledger Vault. Overall, they offer very competitive interest rates of up to 36% on a wide variety of cryptocurrencies; , with free withdrawals of up to 5 times per month on the Ethereum network, and an unlimited number of free withdrawals on the Polygon network. They have an excellent customer support team, and a lively telegram group which can be found here. The Nexo card is an exciting new feature!

Sign up bonus: $25 in BTC with a $100 deposit, held for 1 month. Sign up here!

For more information on Nexo, check out my previous article here.

Hodlnaut

Hodlnaut is a relatively new player in this field, but one that has established a solid reputation to its name. Holdnaut is a fintech company based in Singapore, that has received an in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for the grant of a Major Payment Institution license. Hodlnaut offers tiered interest rates of up to 7.25% on the mainstream cryptocurrency coins with 1 free withdrawal per month; subsequent withdrawals cost $10.

Signup bonus: $50, with a minimum deposit of $1000, held for a period of 31 consecutive days. Sign up here! 

Cake DeFi

Cake DeFi is a one-stop investment platform based in Singapore, that offers the finest in staking, lending and liquidity mining services generating delicious returns of up to 100% APY! (APY rates depend on market conditions)

In summary, Cake DeFi offers the following services to generate passive cashflow from your cryptocurrencies:

• Staking: Allocate DFI for entry into staking to earn returns ranging between 30–40%. There are no fees to stake/ unstake assets. Staking is done on a flexible term, with no minimum contract period. Rewards are paid out in DFI twice daily, and as such compounded with the capital.

• Liquidity mining: Allocate 2 assets of equal value into liquidity mining pools, such as Bitcoin-DFI, Ethereum-DFI, USDT-DFI etc, to generate returns of up to 100% APR (depending on market conditions). Rewards are paid out twice daily mainly in DFI, and can be auto-staked to generate further compounding interests. The recent introduction of decentralized assets represents a revolution in decentralized finance, enabling investors to double dip in the best of both worlds of investing in stocks/ ETFs/ precious metals, with the high yields of cryptocurrency!

• Lending: With lending, assets (Bitcoin/ Ethereum/ USDT/ USDC) are locked in tenures of 1 month duration, with guaranteed base APYs and potential returns should the price of the asset exceed a certain target, on expiry of the term.

• Freezer: The freezer can be likened to a loyalty programme, whereby investors lock their funds in liquidity mining/ staking for a fixed period of time ranging from monthly up to 10 years, in return for increased returns.

• Borrow: Use DFI as collateral to borrow assets at an affordable APR of 5%. Invest your borrowed funds into any of Cake DeFi’s offerings which offer high yields, easily offsetting the loan interests!

Signup bonus: $50 with a minimum of $50 deposit of any supported assets, which are subsequently invested in either 1 lending batch/ staking frozen for 1 month/ liquidity mining frozen for 1 month. Examples of qualifying deposits include a deposit of $50 USDT into 1 lending batch; a deposit of $50 worth of LTC into liquidity mining which is then frozen for 1 month (head over to the freezer to freeze your funds, after entering into the liquidity mining pool); or a deposit of $50 in DFI which is then frozen for 1 month (again, head over to the freezer to freeze your funds, after staking them). Your capital is as such locked for 1 month, acting as a qualifying transaction for you to enjoy the bonus. After qualifying (upon freezing for 1 month/ entering into 1 lending batch), your rewards are instantly reflected on your transaction history, and locked for a period of 180 days generating compounding interests in the freezer. After the locking period of 1 month, your capital is free to do as you please. For the purpose of qualifying for the bonus, I would suggest depositing an amount slightly higher than the minimum required, except for stablecoins, to account for price fluctuations that may occur during the period of transfer and deposit. To learn more about how to qualify for the signup bonus, feel free to check out my previous article here. To learn more about Cake DeFi and its various offerings, click here. Sign up today!

YouHodler

YouHodler is an EU and Swiss-based brand FinTech platform focused on crypto-backed lending with fiat (USD, EUR, CHF, GBP), crypto (BTC) and stablecoin loans (USDT, USDC, TUSD, PAX, PAXG, DAI, HUSD), crypto/fiat and crypto/crypto conversions, as well as high-yield crypto-saving accounts (crypto-rewards & staking). The platform supports BTC, BCH, BNB, ETH, LTC, XLM, XRP, DASH, HT, REP and other popular cryptocurrencies and tokens. User’s digital assets are safely guarded with Ledger Vault’s advanced custody and Fireblocks security options.

YouHodler offers one of the highest returns in the market of up to 10.7% APR for cryptocurrencies without any tiers. Rewards are compounded and paid out weekly.

YouHodler has an edge over its competitors, as it supports the Binance Smart Chain network for the deposit and withdrawal of stablecoins; as such, while there is no free withdrawal offered, USDT and USDC withdrawals over the BEP20 network costs only 1USDT, while ERC20 withdrawals cost $20.

For those with a greater appetite for risk tolerance, YouHodler also offers MutiHODL and Turbocharge services that allow investors to easily avail from leveraged trading.

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Signup bonus: $50 bonus in a coin of your choice, with a deposit of $1000, held for a week. Sign up today!

BlockFi

Founded in 2017, Blockfi is a fintech platform offering a cryptocurrency exchange, interest-bearing accounts, and low-interest-rate loans worldwide, with institutional-quality benefits, being backed by investors that include Valar Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Fidelity, Akuna Capital, SoFi, and Coinbase Ventures.

BlockFi offers a tiered interest rate for cryptocurrencies that go as high as 15% APY. The full list of interest rates can be found here. 

Blockfi offers 1 free withdrawal per month, subsequently chargeable at $50 per withdrawal.

Signup bonus: $10 in BTC with a deposit of $100, held for a month. Sign up today!

In Summary

The downfall of the Terra ecosystem amidst a full-blown bear market has accelerated a spur of collapse of many CeFis. Of those that remain, the above 5 platforms having stood the test of time, have proven themselves worthy of mention.

Wrapping up, the highlights of various cryptocurrency account providers can be summarized in the table below, taking into account the various interest rates, withdrawal privileges, signup bonuses, and the ROI (return of investment) of the offered signup bonus (expressed as a percentage of the signup bonus divided by the capital required to qualify for the said bonus).

As such, the following conclusions can be derived:

• Nexo is a versatile platform that strikes a good balance between an attractive yield, free withdrawals and an attractive signup bonus.

• Cake DeFi makes generating passive cashflow easy, with the entire suite of services offered such as staking, lending and liquidity mining. It also has the highest ROI in terms of signup bonus, giving users an immediate $50 bonus in DFI on a qualifying $50 deposit. However, do note that the $50 bonus in DFI is locked in the freezer for 180 days before being free to be withdrawn, whilst the $50 capital is free to be used after the 1 month holding period in lending/ staking or LM freezer required to qualify for the bonus.

• Youhodler offers one of the highest interest rates in the market especially for stablecoins, with an attractive withdrawal fee on the BEP20 network.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to comment in the section below, if you have any input or have any additional suggestions for me to review in my next article!