Hodlnaut vs BlockFi – Which Is Better?

Last updated on March 22nd, 2022

Crypto lending is becoming very popular. There are quite a few platforms which allow you to lend your crypto out and earn a high interest rate!

2 of these platforms include Hodlnaut and BlockFi.

How are they different and which should you choose?

Here’s what you need to know:

The difference between Hodlnaut and BlockFi

Hodlnaut was founded in Singapore (2019), while BlockFi was founded in New York (2017). Both accounts allow you to earn interest on your cryptocurrencies. While the interest rates are similar, BlockFi allows you to have one free withdrawal per month which makes it more flexible.

Here is an in-depth comparison between these 2 accounts:

Founder

Hodlnaut was started by 2 entrepreneurs from Singapore in 2019 to allow investors to earn interest on their crypto.

Meanwhile, BlockFi was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in New York.

Hodlnaut is smaller with a user base of around 1000+ users. Meanwhile, BlockFi has more than 125,000 users on their platform!

Number of cryptocurrencies

Here are the different cryptocurrencies that you can deposit into either account:

Hodlnaut only allows you to deposit 6 coins

Hodlnaut’s offerings are quite limited as you can only deposit 6 coins into the platform.

These are the 6 currencies you can use:

1. BTC
2. DAI
3. ETH
4. USDT
5. USDC
6. WBTC

BlockFi allows you to hold 13 different currencies

BlockFi has a wider variety of currencies that they allow you to earn interest on. BlockFi offers 8 other currencies that are not found on Hodlnaut:

1. BAT
2. BUSD
3. GUSD
4. LINK
5. LTC
6. PAX
7. PAXG
8. UNI

You are able to deposit WBTC into Hodlnaut, but not in BlockFi.

Purchasing and trading crypto

You are unable to purchase crypto on Hodlnaut’s platform. You also can’t deposit any fiat currencies into Hodlnaut.

Meanwhile, BlockFi allows you to transfer USD into your account.

You are able to transfer your USD via a wire transfer. The minimum deposit is $10.

When you deposit USD into your BlockFi account, you will receive the equivalent in GUSD.

GUSD is a stablecoin that is created by Gemini.

After depositing your USD, you can trade to other cryptocurrencies from your GUSD.

Interest rates

The main thing you’ll be interested in are the interest rates that either account offers you.

Both Hodlnaut and BlockFi provide you with interest based on the currency that you own.

Here are the current interest rates for the 4 currencies that are found in both accounts:

Currency	Hodlnaut APY	BlockFi APY
BTC	7.46% (First 2 BTC)	4.0%
ETH	7.2% (First 20 ETH)	4.0%
USDT	12% (First 25,000 USDT)	7.5%
USDC	12% (First 25,000 USDC)	7.5%

APY stands for annual percentage yield. This takes into effect the compounding interest that you earn on your crypto.

Hodlnaut offers higher interest rates compared to BlockFi for all of the common currencies.

How you earn your rewards

For Hodlnaut, the interest is accrued at the end of every day. However, it will only be credited into your account every Monday.

Meanwhile for BlockFi, your interest is only paid on the first business day of each month. This is similar to how banks pay you.

As such, Hodlnaut may be the better option since it gives you weekly payouts. This way, you are able to compound your returns even faster!

Borrowers of both platforms

How can both of these platforms afford to pay you such a high interest rate on your crypto?

Hodlnaut lends your crypto to “established and vetted financial institutions” that are willing to pay a high interest rate.

Meanwhile, BlockFi lends your crypto to “trusted institutional and corporate borrowers“. They also lend your crypto “on overcollateralized terms“.

Over-collateralization (OC) is the provision of collateral that is worth more than enough to cover potential losses in cases of default.

Investopedia

This means that your crypto is lent to rather reputable sources who are able to pay in case of a default.

However, the assets that you own in BlockFi are not insured by the FDIC!

Deposits

Both Hodlnaut and BlockFi do not have any minimum deposit.

This means that you can deposit any amount into either account, and still earn interest on it!

However, if you decide to only deposit a small amount into BlockFi, you may want to take note of the minimum withdrawal amount of 0.003 BTC and 0.056 ETH.

While you still can withdraw amounts lower than this minimum, the transaction may take up to 30 days to process.

When you are depositing money into either account, you will be given a crypto wallet address to send your crypto to.

You can send your crypto from any exchange that allows you to do so. Some examples include:

1. Coinhako
2. Luno
3. Gemini
4. Coinbase

It is very important that you only send crypto of the same currency to the wallet. If not, all of your crypto will be lost!

You will also need to make sure that the address that you’re sending to is exactly the same!

The string of letters and numbers are really long. If you make any mistake when typing out the address, your crypto will be lost forever!

As such, you may want to directly copy and paste the address instead.

No deposit fees

You are also not charged any deposit fees for either account.

However, you’ll need to consider the fees you’ll incur when sending your crypto from an exchange!

This depends on the exchange that you’re using, and some of them may be very hefty.

Some exchanges like Gemini allow you to withdraw from them up to 10 times each month without incurring any fees. This will help to save on any fees that you incur.

No lock-in period

Both Hodlnaut and BlockFi do not have any lock-in periods. This means that you are able to freely withdraw your crypto any time you wish!

For BlockFi, you do have certain withdrawal limits over a 7-day period:

Currency	Withdrawal Limit (Over 7-Day Period)
BTC	100
ETH	5,000
LTC	10,000
Stablecoins	1,000,000
PAXG	500

Moreover, you may want to take note of the withdrawal fees that you’ll incur!

Withdrawal fees

Hodlnaut charges you withdrawal fees, based on the crypto that you wish to withdraw:

Currency	Fee
BTC	0.0005 BTC
DAI	10 DAI
ETH	0.0036 ETH
USDT	10 USDT
USDC	10 USDC

Meanwhile, BlockFi allows these free withdrawals each month:

• 1 free crypto withdrawal per month
• 1 free stablecoin withdrawal per month

This free withdrawal can only be applied to one currency only.

After that, you’ll be charged withdrawal fees which depends on the currency you withdraw:

Crypto	Withdrawal Fee
BTC	0.00075 BTC
ETH	0.02 ETH
LTC	0.0025 LTC
Stablecoins	$10.00 USD
PAXG	0.015 PAXG

The fees are much higher compared to Hodlnaut! As such, you may only want to make one withdrawal each month to avoid the high fees.

Minimum withdrawals

Apart from the withdrawal fees, you may want to take note of the minimum amount you can withdraw each time.

For BlockFi, your assets are under the custody of Gemini. As such, the minimum amount you can withdraw are based on Gemini’s limits:

Currency	Hodlnaut Minimum	BlockFi Minimum
BTC	0.0005 BTC	0.003 BTC
ETH	0.005 ETH	0.056 ETH

The minimum withdrawals for Hodlnaut is much lower compared to BlockFi. If you intend on withdrawing smaller amounts at a time, then Hodlnaut may be the better option.

Taking loans

BlockFi allows you to take a loan on their platform.

You will need to select a collateral from 4 cryptocurrencies:

1. BTC
2. ETH
3. LTC
4. PAXG

You can only take a loan in USD. This is more restricted compared to Celsius which allows you to take a loan in crypto.

The minimum amount you can loan from BlockFi is $10,000 USD.

The interest rate that you are charged depends on your Loan-To-Value (LTV) ratio:

The interest rates are much higher compared to Celsius’ rates!

Hodlnaut does not offer loans for individual investors

In contrast, Hodlnaut does not offer loans if you’re an individual investor.

Platform

Hodlnaut has both a web platform,

and a mobile app.

BlockFi also has both a web platform,

as well as a mobile app.

This makes BlockFi slightly more accessible.

Security

If you intend to leave your funds with either account, you will be more at ease if they are secure.

So what measures do both of these accounts have?

Hodlnaut does not store your crypto on hot wallets

Hodlnaut stores your assets in a BitGo wallet when you deposit your funds to them.

Moreover, Hodlnaut does not have any hot wallets. This means that their crypto wallets are not connected to the internet.

This reduces the chances of your accounts being hacked!

Hodlnaut does not have any third-part insurance to cover for any losses. However, they stated that they have set aside some of their profits to cover any losses due to hacks.

BlockFi uses Gemini as their primary custodian

To ensure that some of your assets are available to be withdrawn quickly, BlockFi leaves your assets under the custody of 3 institutions:

1. Gemini
2. Coinbase
3. BitGo

Gemini is BlockFi’s main custodian of your assets.

Majority of your assets on the exchange are stored in an offline cold wallet.

Moreover, the remaining funds in the hot wallet is insured.

Our policy insures against the theft of Digital Assets from our Hot Wallet that results from a security breach or hack, a fraudulent transfer, or employee theft.

Gemini

It seems that Gemini’s owners are quite confident about the security of their platform!

As such, you can be reassured that your assets are rather safe with BlockFi.

Crypto lending is risky

The reason why both platforms are offering such high interest rates on your crypto is because this is quite a risky business.

Cryptocurrency is very volatile, and it may fluctuate in price by a lot!

The amount of crypto that you have in your portfolio really depends on your risk profile.

As such, you should decide if you are willing to take the risks when it comes to investing into any cryptocurrency!

Verdict

Here is a comparison between Hodlnaut and BlockFi:

	Hodlnaut	BlockFi
Year Founded	2019	2017
HQ	Singapore	New York
Number of Currencies	6	13
Buying Cryptocurrency	Unavailable	Available (via Trading)
Interest Rates	In-Kind	In-Kind
Accrual of Interest	Every Monday	Every 1st business day of the month
Deposit Fees	None	None
Minimum Deposit	None	None
Lock-in Period	None	None
Withdrawal Fees	Depends on Currency	1st withdrawal for both crypto and stablecoin are free
Loans	Absent	Present
Platform	Web and mobile	Web and mobile
Security	No hot wallet	Gemini as primary custodian

Both of these accounts are very similar, so which should you choose?

Choose Hodlnaut if you want higher interest rates

Hodlnaut offers better interest rates for all 4 currencies. As such, this allows you to earn greater returns on your crypto!

However, Hodlnaut charges withdrawal fees for each withdrawal. If you are looking at a platform that does not charge such fees, you may want to consider Celsius instead.

Choose BlockFi if you want free withdrawals

Even though BlockFi provides lower interest rates, it does have one free withdrawal each month.

This will help you to reduce the high withdrawal costs that you may incur.

Another disadvantage is that your interest is only paid out at the start of every month. This is in contrast to other platforms like Hodlnaut that pay your interest every week.

This may slightly affect the returns that you are receiving!

Conclusion

Both accounts allow you to earn extra interest on your crypto, which is similar to Crypto Earn.

Both of these platforms are very similar. As such, it may not really matter which platform you choose!

Here are some things you’ll need to consider:

1. The type of currency you intend to hold
2. The number of withdrawals you wish to make
3. Whether you frequently use a web platform or mobile app

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