If you are bullish on the long term prospects of cryptocurrencies and/or already hold some in your portfolio, you might want to consider putting them to work for extra passive income.
You can do this by depositing your crypto into Crypto Earn programs to earn an interest on them. This interest that you earn for the deposit term will earn you an Annual Percentage Yield (APY) and is typically paid weekly and denominated in the same crypto asset you’ve deposited.
Find out more about crypto interest accounts (a.k.a. Crypto Earn) in this article by NerdWallet here.
Committing your crypto assets to an earn program is definitely not as safe as bank deposit rates, but you are compensated for the much higher risk you’re taking in the form of higher yields.
The main risk you have to bear is the risk in the underlying crypto asset, of which prices can be extremely volatile as we have seen in almost all crypto coins. Be very careful when investing in crypto, and don’t let the high yields be the main reason you’re buying crypto in the first place.
The other risk to consider is related to the platform itself, how strong their security is and how vulnerable they are to hackers. However, most of the time we layman we won’t know until an attack happens. Just remember to take the usual precautions (differentiated password, enable 2FA, don’t give anyone your OTP, blah blah blah).
If you’re looking for high yield, there are plenty of less riskier places to look into, e.g. high-yield bonds, dividend stocks, REITs, etc.
My point is that if you already have crypto as part of your overall investment portfolio and intend to hold for the long-term, why not earn some extra returns on them which could also serve as a psychological cushion during large drawdowns in crypto (which happens very often).
With all that said, here are some Crypto Earn programs I’m using, the crypto assets they offer on their platforms, and the associated APY and terms:
| Crypto asset / Crypto exchange | Crypto.com | CoinHako | Gemini |
| Bitcoin BTC | 4.50% (3 months) 3.00% (1 month) 1.50% (Flexi) | 3.00% (28 days) | 1.01% (Flexi) |
| Ethereum ETH | 5.50% (3 months) 4.50% (1 month) 3.50% (Flexi) | 2.50% (28 days) | 1.26% (Flexi) |
| Solana SOL | 3.00% (3 months) 2.00% (1 month) 1.00% (Flexi) | 5.00% (28 days) | N/A |
There are many other crypto assets offered, and the APY varies pretty widely between them. Also, different platforms offer earn on different crypto assets although most offer for BTC and ETH.
See Seedly’s page on Best Crypto Earn programs here.
Some things to note on the 3 crypto exchanges I’ve listed, from my own experience:
- Crypto.com – good APY rates (earn rates increase the more CRO you stake), offers earn on most crypto, has varying terms/APY combinations including flexi (passive because you don’t have to initiate another deposit after the previous one matures), no limit to amount of crypto you can deposit.
- CoinHako – pretty new, only offers earn on 6 crypto (BTC, ETH, DOT, ZIL, XTZ, SOL), only a limited amount of crypto can be deposit (can get sold out), only offers 7 and 28 days terms, no flexi.
- Gemini – low APY for BTC and ETH, no option for fixed terms for higher APY.
As you can probably tell, I prefer Crypto.com and CoinHako over Gemini for Crypto Earn. If you’re interested to sign up, you can find my referral links to Crypto.com and CoinHako below or in my Resources page.
I’ll probably write another post comparing these 3 exchanges more holistically in future. I also intend to look at other options like Hodlnaut which seems to offer competitive APY rates as well.
At the risk of sounding like a nag, beware that crypto is an extremely volatile asset class and there’s a risk of partial or total loss of capital invested in crypto. I wouldn’t recommend investing more than 15% of your portfolio into crypto, unless you know exactly what you’re doing (most of the time I don’t) and have very high risk tolerance.
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Disclosure: I hold BTC, ETH, SOL, and CRO.
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I am not professional financial advisor nor do I work in the finance industry. Anything I write here is purely my personal opinion. Please do your own research and due diligence before investing into anything. All investments come with associated risks. Best to consult a financial advisor if you’re still unsure.
If you’re interested to start investing but don’t know where to start, here are some tips:
- 5 Basic Things to Consider Before Investing in the Stock Market
- How To Start Investing In Stocks (For Beginners)
- How To Become A Millionaire Through The Stock Market
- How To Create An Asset Allocation Plan
- Should You Diversify Or Concentrate Your Investment Portfolio?
- How To Track Your Portfolio Performance Using Portseido
- What To Consider When Adding Funds To Your Portfolio
- How Tracking Your Net Worth Can Help You Build Wealth
For more investing tips, visit my Guide page.
- Standard Chartered Online Trading: Referral link
- FSMOne: Referral code P0267058
- Tiger Brokers: Referral link | Review
- Futu SG (moomoo app): Referral link | Review
- Webull: Referral link
- Syfe Wealth & Syfe Trade: Referral code FINANCEGNOME | Referral link | Review
- Endowus: Referral code J5HPB | Referral link
- CoinHako: Referral link
- Crypto.com: Referral link
- Portseido: Referral link
For more investing resources, see my Referrals page.
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