Nexo vs Celsius Network vs BlockFi
Intro
Perhaps you are not interested in trading but want to take advantage of the significant gains that can be made through owning cryptocurrency. Or maybe you're not satisfied with the 0.02% interest your bank is paying you. Below we explore 3 of the top crypto lending platforms to see which is the best way to earn a passive income while you sleep.
Nexo
Who are Nexo?
Nexo, founded in 2017 by Antoni Trenchev, Georgi Shulev and Kosta Kantchev is a subsidiary of a company called Credissimo, a company who have been in the lending business since 2007 so backed by a team with a wealth of experience.
Stats
- Manages $15B+ in assets
- 1.5M+ users
- 200+ jurisdictions
- 40+ fiat currencies available
Nexo Loyalty Program
Nexo has an “Earn in NEXO” option similar to Celsius’s (Earn in CEL), from which users get about a 2% boost per asset.
Nexo Interest Rates
Nexo offers very high rates, especially on stablecoins where you can earn up to 12% APY when choose to "Earn in NEXO". "Earn in Kind" rates are lower by 2%.
How Does Nexo Generate Interest?
Interest generated from lending to institutions and customers who provide collateral for loans. If the loan goes south, collateral is liquidated and used to pay interest.
Secruity
- Two-factor authentication
- Nexo only loans your assets to credit lines that are overcollateralised between 200-500%
- Licensed and regulated financial institution
- $100 million insurance on custodial assets
- Nexo uses BitGo as it's custodian, a company backed by Goldman Sachs and is CCSS Level 3 and SOC 2 compliant
- Nexo uses Jumio to adhere to the strictest KYC and AML global compliance standards. Jumio is also trusted by Microsoft, Oracle, Monzo, and HSBC
- In February 2021, Nexo added security infrastructure in the form of Ledger's institutional-grade security system, Ledger Vault, backed by $1 billion in crime insurance.
Read more about Nexo's security here.
Nexo Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy to use app and website | Must hold NEXO tokens for highest rates |
| Very high levels of security | The $375 million insurance is cumulative for all clients |
| Withdraw at any time | Loyalty tier determines number of free withdrawals per month |
| No credit score checks | |
| Compound interest paid daily |
Celsius Network
Who are Celsius Network?
Founded in 2017 by Alex Mashinsky and S. Daniel Leon, Celsius Network are a mobile-only blockchain-based lending company. Although they have a website, their platform is only accessible through their free app. This may be an inconvenience to many, however it's not the first time we've seen this - popular challenger bank Monzo has been hugely successful with it's mobile-only banking services with currently 4M+ customers.
Celsius also offers a product called CelPay, which lets customers send and receive crypto for free.
Update:Celsius now has a web app!
Stats
- 882,000+ users
- $2,000,000,000 held in treasury
- 21,000,000,000 held in commodity assets
Celsius Loyalty Program
Rewards tiers are based on the proportion of holdings that are held in CEL tokens.
Celsius Interest Rates
Celsius offers the highest rates on stablecoins compared to the Nexo and BlockFi at 12.65%
How Does Celsius Generate Interest?
The Celsius finance team generates returns for our community by lending out our community's digital assets to institutional and retail borrowers. We aim to return up to 80% of the revenues made from lending out our community's assets back to our community on a weekly basis.
Due to the rate of returns we can achieve in the lending market change nearly every day, we adjust the rates that our community earns on their digital assets on a weekly basis.
Security
- Two-factor authentication
- Whitelisted withdrawal addresses
- “HODL mode” which can be activated to restrict withdrawals
- Fireblocks and PrimeTrust (their custodians) both provide insurance on digital assets held by Celsius
- Borrowers are required to post collateral of up to 150%
Read more about Celsius's security here.
Celsius Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy to use mobile platform | Need to hold CEL Tokens for highest rates |
| Highest interest rates on stablecoins | Interest rates can vary |
| No withdrawal fees, no transfer fees, no transaction fees, no early termination fees, no origination fees | KYC required |
| Withdraw anytime | |
| Interest paid weekly |
BlockFi
Who are BlockFi?
Founded by Zac Prince and Flori Marquez in 2017, BlockFi is a New York based, fully regulated lender. They use Gemini, a New York trust company regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as their primary custodian. They have major institutional backing from investors such as Valar Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Fidelity, Akuna Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Winklevoss Capital.
Stats
- $15B+ assets under management
- 225,000+ users
- 10 coins supported
Withdrawals
1 free crypto and 1 free stablcoin withdrawal per calendar month.
BlockFi Interest Rates
How Does BlockFi Generate Interest?
BlockFi generates interest on assets held in Interest Accounts by lending them to trusted institutional and corporate borrowers. To ensure loan performance, BlockFi lends crypto on over-collateralized terms (similar to the structure of our crypto-backed loans).
Furthermore, BlockFi’s automated risk management system monitors positions 24/7, providing the same trusted risk management system used with BlockFi’s crypto-backed loans. BlockFi has the ability to terminate a borrow in a timely fashion and also manages reserve balances to facilitate clients withdrawals from Interest Accounts. Reserves are stored securely with our primary custodian Gemini, a New York trust company regulated by NYDFS.
Security
- Two-factor authentication
- Asset balance sheets only get lent to trusted institutions and corporations
- "Allowlisting" allows you to ban all cryptocurrency withdrawals, or restrict withdrawals to a list of known addresses only
Read more about BlockFi's security here.
BlockFi Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Telephone support | KYC required |
| No lock-up periods | Only 1 free withdrawal per month |
| Compound interest | Interest paid monthly(can see interest accumulate on dashboard though) |
| No need for native tokens to get highest rates | |
| Accepts USA citizens |
$1000 Interest Rate Scenario
Below is a rough estimate of the potential returns made through compound interest. "Earn in Kind" will be chosen as the value of CEL/NEXO tokens can fluctuate. The following asumptions are made:
- New Nexo user - Hold 0 NEXO tokens, depositing USDT, "Earn in Kind"
- New Celsius user - Hold 0 CEL tokens, depositing USDT, "Earn in Kind"
- New BlockFi user - Depositing USDT
| 1 Day | 1 Week | 1 Month | 1 Year | Interest earned after 1Y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 @ 8% APY | $1,000.22 | $1,001.54 | $1,006.69 | $1,083.28 | + $83.28 |
 @ 10% APY | $1,000.27 | $1,001.92 | $1,008.37 | $1,105.16 | + $105.16 |
 @ 9.3% APY | $1,000.25 | $1,001.79 | $1,007.78 | $1,097.45 | + $97.45 |
Celsius vs BlockFi vs Nexo Comparison Table
| | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2017 | 2017 | 2017 |
| Interest Payout Frequency | Weekly | Monthly | Daily |
| Number of Currencies | 44 | 10 | 17 |
| Highest Interest Rate Available | 17.78% (with SNX or MATIC) | 9.3% (with USDT) | 12% (with stablecoins) |
| Highest Rate With Stablecoins | 12.65% | 9.3% | 12% |
| Compound Interest | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lock-up Period | None | None | None |
| KYC | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Users | 882,000+ | 225,000+ | 1,500,000+ |
| Miniumum Deposit | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Withdrawal Fees | $0 | 1 Free Crypto and 1 Free Fiat Withdrawal per Month | 1 Free Withdrawal per Month |
| Platform | Mobile & Web App | Mobile & Web App | Mobile & Web App |
| Security | High | High | Very High |
| Platform Token | CEL Token | - | NEXO Token |
| Trust Pilot Rating | 4.1 (1,352 reviews) | 3.9 (137 reviews) | 4.6 (4,932 reviews) |
Sign-Up Offers
If you decide to sign up to any of these lending platforms, use my referral codes below to take advantage of their introductory offers.
| Reward | Terms | Referral Link | Referral Code | Where To Use | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50 in BTC | Deposit $400 and hold for 30 days | - | 150232deba | Enter code upon sign-up |
| $10 in BTC | Deposit $100 of any crypto or stablecoin | blockfi.com | 9d60eddc | Enter code upon sign-up or use link |
| - | - | - | - | - |