If you have invested in cryptocurrency and you firmly believe in the future of internet money, you are what in industry jargon we call a “holder”. This category includes all those who accumulate crypto assets and do not use them to speculate on prices (sell high, buy low). Of course, this category can also benefit from numerous earning opportunities offered by the crypto-sphere. Even if, by definition, they cannot monetize from the price fluctuations of tokens through trading, holders have on their side a very powerful tool to increase their profits without selling their beloved cryptocurrencies: yeld farming. Put simply, this tool allows holders to "lock" their assets for a certain period of time within a platform in exchange for interest. In this way, holders can increase their assets while maintaining their crypto through the rewards generated by their contribution. It is almost like locking your dollars or euros in bank to have passive income: but while the interest given by the bank are barely enough to cover account expenses and growing inflation, with cryptocurrencies you generate concrete profits.
Like many others, once I entered the crypto world I was immediately fascinated by decentralized finance (DeFi). Platforms belonging to this category, of which I have spoken extensively in some of my previous articles, however, are often complicated to use by newcomers and in general difficult to manage for those who do not have much time to monitor their investments. Centralized finance has been able to create tools capable of attracting this range of users (and not only), studying for them products that have constant and safe returns.
Today I want to write about Hodlnaut, one of the most important cryptocurrency lending portals on the market. This centralized finance platform (CeFi), founded in 2019 and based in Singapore, has received Fintech certification from the Singapore Fintech Association and holds over $ 230 million in assets under management, growing 20% on a monthly basis.
The name Hodlnaut, as explained by the co-founder and CEO Juntao Zhu in an interview, derives from "hodl" (hold misspelled in a famous post on bitcointalk) and "astronaut", a parallelism that wants to evoke the image of Bitcoin "to the moon", which has now entered in the collective imagination. The platform aims to become the most reliable in the industry, as well as to contribute to the growth of the cryptocurrency industry by making the financial services associated with it easily accessible to an ever-growing audience of users.
After this introduction, let's examine how the platform works.
First of all, you will need to register on the site and complete the KYC (Know Your Costumer). Being a certified CeFi portal, this procedure must be adopted. To verify your data will take about two working days past which, if there are no problems, you will be enabled to use the platform. I requested identity verification on August 7 (Saturday) and on August 11 (Wednesday) it was accepted. The KYC also guarantees the safety of your funds: unlike decentralized finance portals, which are accessed with non-custodial wallets (where user holds their private keys which, if lost, cannot be recovered), on Hodlnaut, if you forget your password, you will have just to select “FORGOT PASSWORD” during login and follow the procedure. In addition to KYC, for greater account security, you will need to enable two-factor authentication. The easiest way is through the Google Authenticator app available for iOS and Android.
On the main screen, "My Account", we find the supported currencies and the related interest rates. To date we find BTC, ETH and WBTC in addition to the stablecoins DAI, USDC and USDT. There are only a few products but with returns ranging from 7.2% to 12%. Interest rates are structured in levels, as you can see in the Bitcoin deposits box: the APY decreases as the deposited amount increases.
Just like DeFi portals, Hodlnaut lends the assets deposited by users to a wide range of verified and controlled counterparties in order to minimize the risk of insolvency. The interest rate paid by these institutions, together with the earnings of the previous months and the market trend of the supported cryptocurrencies, allow Hodlnaut to pay users with very attractive interest rates.
After analyzing the interest of the various supported assets, we can move to the "Deposit / Withdrawal" section where, by selecting it from the appropriate drop-down menu, we will be able to choose which asset to deposit in order to start earning interest. Using the address provided (by copying or scanning it with a QR Code) we will be able to send the funds to the portal from our original wallet and immediately start generating interest. There is no minimum deposit. In the same section, below, we find the mirror for the withdrawal of our cryptocurrencies. Here we will have to enter the amount to be withdrawn and the destination address. During both the deposit and the withdrawal phase, be careful to enter the correct address and look at the fees. These last, regarding the withdrawal of funds from Hodlnaut, are now equal to 10 USDT in the case of Tether dollars and 0.0004 BTC in the case of Bitcoin, absolutely in line with those of other competing sites.
Once you have deposited your funds, all you have to do is enjoy your interest, which will be paid on a weekly basis. Hodlnaut will send you an email at the end of each week with the report of your returns, so you will not necessarily have to log into the site to monitor them. In mid-August was also released the iOS app, which allows you to operate with your account directly from your iPhone.
Recently, the “Token Swap” function has been added, which allows users to exchange their assets with others supported by Hodlnaut. The exchange is really simple and intuitive: once the amount to be converted and the desired asset has been set, the portal provides the quote which, once clicked on REVIEW QUOTE, will remain locked for thirty seconds during which we can confirm the trade order. The really tempting aspect is that this feature is totally free and without swap fees!
Also noteworthy is the affiliate program, available in the "Affiliate" section, which allow you to earn 10% of the commissions from users who register with your link. Your referrals, in turn, will be able to get a $ 20 bonus if they deposit within one week from registration in a single transaction at least $1000. Not a huge incentive, but better than nothing.
The last aspect to underline is that, in the "User Settings" section, in addition to the preferences on the background color, the password change and the 2FA enabling, we find two really interesting functions. The first allows us to choose in which currency we want receive the interest: for example, if I deposit BTC, I can choose to receive the related interest in ETH. The second allows us to insure our funds with Nexus Mutual Hodlnaut Cover. If we want to be particularly foresighted because of fear of possible hacker attacks or our deposit is really huge, we can buy insurance that will cover our deposit for the requested period for an annual cost of 2.8% (to date) of the insured value. For now, the function is only supported for ETH deposits, but I must say that it is an excellent additional guarantee, even if it could cost less.
If you encounter problems of any kind, you can always contact support at [email protected] or ask on the dedicated Telegram group.
My deposit of $ 50 in BTC, meanwhile, continues to generate satoshi (almost) without any effort on my part. For now, Hodlnaut is the portal that offers me the best interest on my Bitcoins, especially considering that I can withdraw at any time and without constraints, while in other sites to have similar interest I have to tie my funds for a given period of time; not including the withdrawal fees, which elsewhere are equal or higher.
In conclusion, Hodlnaut is a very simple portal to use. To be centralized, it has really good interest rates, relatively low commissions (if we also consider the free swap function) and guarantees a satisfactory degree of safety. On the other hand, it supports only few assets and there is no internal support service on the site. If you have little time to manage your cryptocurrencies or you are not very experienced, but you are looking for an easy way to make your assets pay off, Hodlnaut is a great solution.
Would you like to try Hodlnaut and benefit from the $20 first deposit bonus? Use this link!
Useful links (to earn and help me earn):
noise.cash - BCH post-to-earn social network
Cake DeFi - $50 Sign up and first deposit bonus
SwapSpace - the exchange aggregator
Join Torum, the crypto social network
Loop market - TERRA/LUNA community
ExpressCrypto: your best faucet
MOBOX - Free to play, play to earn
Become a rocker with Rising Star Game
Discover Upland and start earning!
The Sandbox: Join the Metaverse!
