Asking for a friend.
Is there any way to make dividends holding Bitcoin?
If someone has $100,000 in the bank or piggyvest in my country they can make up to 18% in a year.
Holding Bitcoin, how can someone make something similar?
This is a question a friend asked me yesterday and I just say that Bitcoin is safer in my hardware wallet and I don't plan on making any interest or anything because if it's possible it will be me handling over my Bitcoin to a thirdpart company.
Or is there any way that this is possible?
Bitcoin itself does not pay dividend or interest. If someone promise you fixed return just for holding BTC, then most likely you are not only “holding” anymore, you are giving your coins to a third party or taking another risk somewhere.
That 18% from bank also need to be looked at very well. If it is in local currency, maybe the real profit is not really 18% after inflation and currency devaluation. Sometimes high interest rate is only high because the currency itself is losing value fast. So comparing it directly with Bitcoin can be misleading.
With Bitcoin, the “profit” is usually from price appreciation over time, not from yield. You hold because you expect BTC to preserve or increase purchasing power in the long run. But there is no guaranteed yearly income like bank interest.
Yes, there are platforms that offer BTC yield, wrapped BTC, lending, staking-like products, etc. But all of them add extra risk: custodial risk, smart contract risk, platform risk, liquidation risk or even scam risk. After what happened with Celsius, BlockFi and others, I think people should be very careful chasing yield with Bitcoin.
For me, if the BTC is in your hardware wallet, you are already getting the biggest benefit: control. Trying to earn extra interest may look attractive, but losing self-custody just to chase some percentage can be more expensive than the reward itself.
So the real choice is not “bank interest vs Bitcoin dividend”. It is more like fixed fiat yield with inflation risk vs Bitcoin self-custody with volatility risk. Different risks, different purpose.