Such is the nature of Crypto markets that it is green a minute and another, it is bleeding red. However, there are always some who are unfazed by the ups and downs in the market and are holding onto some of their favourite Crypto assets. I also hold small quantities of many crypto assets.
I realised that much like keeping money in banks, I could lend my crypto holdings to earn interest on it. Unlike banks though, interest rates on crypto lending go from 1% per year to even more than 100% depending on the platform and demand for loans.
It is not a joke. Before starting this article, I lent a few USDT coins at 0.23% interest per day for 30 days, that is ~7% interest in one month, something a savings account wouldn’t even earn in a year.
Of course we do lose the control of our funds as they go into a centralised exchange in most cases. That is why it is imperative that we trust the exchanges that we are storing and lending our cryptocurrencies on or the exchange itself is non-custodial in nature.
I have shortlisted three exchanges, created by people from India (could be registered outside of India) to compare their crypto lending and borrowing facility.
- Bitbns – Peer to Peer lending upto 30 days with no limit on Interest rate for selective crypto assets.
- CoinDCX – Lending on exchange at fixed interest rates upto 2% (can increase) per month for selective crypto assets.
- Nuo – Non Custodial Lending Platform with variable interest rate for ETH and few ERC20 tokens. An Ethereum based smart contract holds your funds.
Contents
Bitbns
Bitbns introduced Margin trading in April 2018, almost a year ago with a fixed interest rate of 0.55% per day between lender and borrower. The product evolved with several changes, including one where user can set their own interest rates.
The system is entirely Peer to Peer, only a user can borrow or lend assets to another user. So if you’re holding your cryptocurrencies on Bitbns, you can lend it out and make an interest income on it, provided you have a matching borrower.
Currently, a user can borrow or lend 28 crypto assets on Bitbns including BTC, ETH, XRP, USDT and other popular coins and tokens. Each asset has a minimum lending and borrowable quantity.
How it Works
- User can create an order for lending from the “Margin trading” page on the exchange. Lender can set the interest rate (per day) and the terms of lending – 1, 3, 7, 15 or 30 days.
- A borrower’s request is matched with the lender. Once matched, at the end of the term, borrower will pay the principle + interest to the lender.
- Bitbns charges fee over the interest received by the lender. No fee is charged to borrower.
Note: A user can also create a borrowing request the same way and await a lender's order to match.
Pros:
- Flexibility for setting terms and interest rate as per user’s convenience. There truly is no limit on interest rate. While testing I loaned USDT at 0.23% interest a day, effective monthly interest ~6%.
- Ability to set up Auto Renewal on loans after the term is completed.
- Bitbns freezes borrower’s withdrawals (upto 2x value of the borrowing) ensuring safety of the borrowed funds and interest.
Cons:
- Lender only earns interest if the order is matched with a borrower.
- Lender pays ~15% fees the interest. This is only a con because there are no fees on other exchanges.
CoinDCX Lending (DCXLend)
Update: Coindcx now offers 8 crypto assets for lending at various interest rates.
CoinDCX exchange launched Margin trading last month with upto 5x leverage on select crypto pairs. Now the exchange has launched Crypto asset lending. Unlike Bitbns, the margin trading and lending are not peer to peer but with the exchange.
The exchange has opened lending for BTC and USDT for now at 2% and 1.5% monthly interest respectively. The minimum BTC lending amount is 0.01 BTC and for USDT it is 50 USDT. To test the system, I lent 50 USDT for 30 days.
How it Works
- On DCXLend page, user can choose the asset for lending, enter amount and duration. The minimum lending duration is 7 days.
- Once submitted, the maturity value and date can be seen on the page under “Loaned Currency”.
There is no explicit borrowing facility for users, but under the margin trade, users can trade upto 5x of their original capital to long or short assets.
Pros:
- Immediate Lending at fixed monthly interest rates
- Allowed to close the trade after initial lock-in of 7 days, albeit user won’t receive any interest for pre-mature closure.
Cons:
- After clicking submit, the order is immediately placed and completed. Cannot see maturity value before hand.
- Only two assets can be lent.
Nuo Network
Nuo Network is a ‘global debt marketplace’ built on Ethereum blockchain where users can lend or borrow ETH and seven other ERC20 tokens including BTC pegged WBTC tokens.
The interest rate is calculated dynamically based on the demand of Loans. At the time of writing, the rate of interest varies between 1-2.3% across different tokens per year.
Nuo is non-custodial in nature and is based on Ethereum, hence all transactions take place using smart contracts. Your funds are not held by the exchange. If you are a lender, your funds will be added to a reserve which will then be used to fund loans and allow leverage trading for other users.
How it works
- Nuo User must fund their trading account with any supported token or ETH and create a loan request.
- The tenure for the loan can be upto 180 days.
- Once the loan is created, user will begin earning interest. Interest rates keep varying based on demand of loans.
Note: A user can also create a borrowing request and will be awarded the loan from the reserves.
Pros
- The exchange does not hold your funds. Smart contracts are open source.
- Immediate Lending.
- Metamask integration.
- Can stop the loan at any time.
Cons
- Low interest rates compared to Bitbns and CoinDCX
- Only Ethereum based tokens can be Loaned or Borrowed.
The Major Difference
The major difference between all three exchanges is that each one has a different mechanism behind lending. Bitbns is user-to-user trade, CoinDCX is user-to-exchange trade, and Nuo is user-to-smart contract trade.
Bitbns takes the edge on interest rate because it can be set by the user. CoinDCX takes the edge on immediate lending and good interest rate. It is balanced, as of now. Nuo takes the edge because it is smart contract driven and you don’t lose your funds if Nuo Network’s wallets get hacked.
At the end of the day, if your goal to make a little more crypto wealth by loaning your holdings, these three are good options. Globally there are several other exchanges offering similar services, some of them are decentralised as well. But I personally prefer to keep my funds in exchanges where I can reach out to support and get quick resolution.
Disclaimer: The above article is not an investment advise. Crypto asset trading, lending, investments are all subject to market risks. Please ensure that you are aware of all the risks before investing. Coin Crunch India cannot be held liable for any losses occurred for investments based on the article.
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