Comparing BTC Lending Platforms

[RooseveltOah]

There are myriads of crypto lending platforms out there these days, I’ve been trying to figure out where to lend my BTCs so here are some numbers I’ve pulled for comparison, so if you’re also thinking about hodl anyway, these may be some numbers you can reference.

CoinList and Genesis requires a higher deposit minimum, so I didn’t look much into them, I also did not look into sites that would require me to look into someone’s profile, way too much work and risky. Other than these I didn’t find many I feel I can trust, if anyone wants to suggest a certain platform I can dive into it and put it here for comparison.

Celcius Network
Team credential : Founder has proven record of growing early stage startups, CEO was one of the inventors of VOIP and exited multiple times
Funding : ICO, ~50m USD value of tokens sold
Minimum deposit : None
BTC lending rates : 3.35% (higher if you accept CEL the platform token)
Deposit fees : None
Withdrawal fees : None
Lockup : No lockup
Wallet/Custodian provider : BitGo
Insurance : lenders and borrowers are insured for up to $100,000,000.00 by Lloyd’s -- a London-based bank --  in case of a hack or bankruptcy.
Payouts : Weekly

BlockFi
Team credential : Founder & CEO was in sales roles in multiple high growth startups, one acquired by Google
Funding : Backed by Peter Thiel, Coinbase Ventures, Consensys, Fidelity, Windlevoss Capital and many other well known investors, raised over $20 million
Minimum deposit : None
BTC lending rates : 6.2% APY at the point of this article (Best so far, under 10 BTC), over 10 BTC it drops to 2.2%
Deposit fees : None
Withdrawal fees : one free withdrawal per client per month. After that, our custodian Gemini passes on a withdrawal fee of 0.0025 BTC.
Lockup : None
Wallet/Custodian provider : Gemini
Insurance : Not FDIC insured
Payouts : Monthly

[joniboini]

What about Binance? You didn't try them yet?

Seems like there will be more platforms to compare, especially with how exchanges are starting to join the lending bandwagon. Nexo is also an 'old-player' in this field.

[Patatas]

That's a very detailed insight mate, you could do a lot more sites and create a dedicated thread for the same. Stuff like the history of the founder really talks a lot about the project. I don't know how you missed out on Poloniex. They're definitely one of the best lending platforms out there!

[1Referee]

so if you’re also thinking about hodl anyway, these may be some numbers you can reference.

It's perhaps important to point out that whenever you send your coins to one of these lending platforms, you don't hold anything anymore. The coins were yours, now they are property of the lending platform or the custodian service they use. Is that something to look forward to? Not for me and hopefully not for others, but people are greedy and probably don't care.  

I won't be able to sleep well knowing that I can wake up to a news article headlining that these lending platforms have shut down. Insurance won't help you at all.

[buwaytress]

Last time I loaned btc was for margin trading at Poloniex. Was very profitable as this was running up to the 2017 boom, but I was lucky. They had a huge liquidation event on some defaulting bug several months back didn't they? And they "socialised" losses so guaranteed income from lending does not exist. Even if funds were somehow non-custodial (escrowed or timelocked maybe by smart contract), any decision to socialise losses from bugs would lose you money.

People are saying the industry is showing signs of heating up impending collapse. I'd consider something else. Too high risk for too little gain.

[gentlemand]

People are saying the industry is showing signs of heating up impending collapse. I'd consider something else. Too high risk for too little gain.

Blockfi at least has some reassuring names attached to it, but then Circle owned Poloniex when it fucked all those people, not that I consider Circle a competent operation.

Here's one snippet from Blockfi's terms and conditions.

'BlockFi and our third party partners may experience cyber-attacks, extreme market conditions, or other operational or technical difficulties which could result in the immediate halt of deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrency either temporarily or permanently. BlockFi is not and will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred by you as a result of such cyber-attacks, operational or technical difficulties or suspensions of deposits or withdrawals.'

I'm relatively sure every crypto custodian has that somewhere in their terms but that finished my boner off at least.

[RooseveltOah]

People are saying the industry is showing signs of heating up impending collapse. I'd consider something else. Too high risk for too little gain.

Blockfi at least has some reassuring names attached to it, but then Circle owned Poloniex when it fucked all those people, not that I consider Circle a competent operation.

Here's one snippet from Blockfi's terms and conditions.

'BlockFi and our third party partners may experience cyber-attacks, extreme market conditions, or other operational or technical difficulties which could result in the immediate halt of deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrency either temporarily or permanently. BlockFi is not and will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred by you as a result of such cyber-attacks, operational or technical difficulties or suspensions of deposits or withdrawals.'

I'm relatively sure every crypto custodian has that somewhere in their terms but that finished my boner off at least.

Yes all of them do say this somewhere for sure, all these lending platforms can only be relatively stable, there’s probably never going to be absolute security, hence a detailed comparison is definitely needed.

[LeGaulois]

It's a valid point, but compared to the banking system, when we make a deposit, the money isn't ours anymore. We lend it to the bank with a promise to pay it back as soon as we ask for it (when we make a withdrawal). Of course in some countries, we are covered by deposit guarantee funds and the government, but in reality, we are not even sure. What I mean is: where will the money come from, from the taxpayers? or will they still print new money?
Also when we invest in mutual funds, we are not safe from mismanagement of the money for example.

I start to believe citizens have fewer risks with the fintech industry compared to the traditional system because there's more logic in their system.
In example, they can't invent numbers by playing with the scriptural money

...

Banks could add the same thing in their contracts, but they don't otherwise people won't really trust them. But if it happens how will they refund us? Their profits? Wich may not be enough on a large scale?