A look at several leading DeFi and CeFi crypto lending platforms and which ones offer the best cryptocurrency interest rates.
UPDATED August 17, 2024. Who offers the best crypto interest rates? With the growth of DeFi and CeFi apps, crypto lending, margin trading, and staking cryptocurrencies in recent years, it can be difficult to know where the best crypto yields for your idle capital are. Following on from our guide to crypto yield farming, this investigation takes a look at the top crypto lending platforms and examines the different interest rates they offer.
First, it’s important to understand the difference between “crypto lending” and “crypto borrowing” in the context of this article. If you’re lending in the scenarios below, you’re lending your assets to the platforms presented in the hopes of earning interest on your crypto assets. Your goal is to get your initial sum back, along with the interest earned. This article doesn’t cover crypto borrowing – where you would borrow assets (or fiat currency in some cases) from a platform, which you would be required to repay – with additional interest. For the best crypto borrowing rates, click here.
The question of which is the best crypto lending platform is open to debate – as each has its own approach and processes – but the annual interest rates paid are certainly a good starting point. All interest rates were recorded on August 17, 2024 and are subject to change. A rate of zero on a specific platform means that the cryptocurrency is temporarily unavailable there. It does not mean 0% interest. The rates displayed are usually maximums and may be subject to additional terms and conditions from the platform.
Best Interest Rates for Cryptocurrencies
Stablecoin exchange rates
USDC |
DAI |
USDT |
USDP |
The TUSD |
BUSD |
||
 |
12% |
12% |
12% |
0% |
12% |
12% |
 |
 |
11.34% |
9.21% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
 |
14% |
14% |
16% |
14% |
14% |
– |
|
 |
2.63% |
– |
6.4% |
– |
– |
– |
|
 |
– |
– |
10% |
– |
– |
– |
|
 |
1.02% |
1.57% |
2.65% |
0.97% |
1.93% |
– |
|
 |
8% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
 |
6.21% |
8.77% |
6.17% |
– |
– |
0% |
|
 |
4.12% |
3.56% |
4.45% |
0% |
0% |
0% |
|
 |
10.5% |
– |
10.5% |
– |
– |
– |
|
 |
0% |
4.5% |
4.5% |
2% |
0% |
– |
|
 |
5% |
– |
5% |
– |
– |
– |
|
Cryptocurrency exchange rates
Bitcoin |
ETH |
WBTC |
LINK |
UNITED |
TRX |
YFI |
GROUND |
POINT |
ADA |
||
|
|
5% |
5% |
– |
5% |
5% |
5% |
5% |
– |
10% |
5% |
|
|
|
– |
4.05% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
|
7% |
8% |
– |
7% |
– |
– |
– |
8% |
15% |
8% |
|
|
|
3.2% |
6% |
– |
4.38% |
1.02% |
4.38% |
– |
4.38% |
3.5% |
4.38% |
|
|
|
9% |
8% |
– |
7% |
3.1% |
6% |
– |
6% |
– |
– |
|
|
|
– |
0.03% |
0.01% |
0.02% |
0.23% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
|
1% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
|
– |
0.01% |
1.44% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
|
– |
1.88% |
0.08% |
0.01% |
0.01% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
|
4.5% |
4.5% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
|
4% |
4% |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
5.5% |
9% |
3.5% |
|
An Introduction to Crypto Lending
The other side of lending is of course borrowing. If you want to take out a loan (in USD for example), many of the providers above also offer this service. Check out the latest borrowing rates here.
Most major lending and borrowing protocols, both in CeFi and DeFi, require borrowers to lock up an asset in order to take out a loan. These types of loans are called collateralized loans.
Collateral is a borrower’s commitment to pledge a certain amount of assets in order to enable the lender to recover its principal in the event of the borrower’s default. If a borrower fails to repay a loan obligation, the lender has the right to possess the pledged collateral in the event of default on the loan.
Collateralized loans, or more precisely “overcollateralized loans,” are at the heart of how DeFi lending tokens work effectively. DeFi lending protocols enable open, permissionless, and pseudo-anonymous financial services. There are no credit score requirements for borrowers and typically no formal KYC or AML requirements.
In order to maintain a balance between open access and systemic stability, the value of collateral that must be pledged for DeFi loans must exceed the value of the loans. If, for example, a DeFi user wants to take out a $100 DAI loan directly on Makerdao, they must invest at least $150 in Ethereum.
Borrowing from DeFi protocols can often be a precarious and time-consuming process that goes beyond simply repaying interest in installments.
The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio must be closely monitored to ensure that the collateral requirement agreed upon before the loan is executed is met. Maintaining this LTV ratio is made more difficult if borrowers pledge volatile assets like ETH. If the value of ETH suddenly changes in USD, loans can be liquidated very quickly and borrowers are not protected by existing mechanisms like loan insurance.
For these reasons, due to the complex nature of the unique DeFi protocol specific agreements that go beyond interest rate payments, BNC has chosen not to include details on DeFi protocol borrowing rates.
Programmable Money: Tools That Automatically Find the Best Crypto Interest Rates for You
Today, there are yield optimization platforms like Yearn.finance. They use the capabilities of the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate the programming of money to make it easier for users to find optimal interest rates automatically. Before Yearn, users looking to maximize their yields had to manually move their stablecoins between lending protocols. A slow and laborious process that Yearn aims to avoid.
The protocol works by creating pools for each deposited asset. When a user deposits their stablecoins into one of these pools, they receive yTokens which are yield equivalents of the deposited coin. If, for example, a user deposits DAI into the protocol, it will issue yDAI in return.
Assets are automatically transferred between DeFi ecosystem lending platforms like Compound and Aave, where interest rates on deposited assets change dynamically. Every time a new user deposits assets into a pool on Yearn, the protocol checks for higher yield opportunities and rebalances the entire pool if necessary. At any time, a user can burn their yDAI and withdraw their initial deposits and accrued interest in the form of the original deposit asset.
The protocol has evolved to offer more complex solutions that can efficiently maximize returns on user deposits. The yCRV liquidity pool built by Yearn on the Curve financial platform contains the following yTokens: yDAI, yUSDC, yUSDT, yTUSD and redeems a yCRV token that represents the index. Users can deposit any of the four native stablecoins into the pool and earn interest on the yield-bearing yCRV tokens. Depositors also earn trading fees from Curve for providing liquidity to other users on the platform.
