Generating Interest on Bitcoin and Cryptoassets: BlockFi, Voyager, Celsius, Ledn.io

5 min readJul 7, 2021

Stack those sats while hodling Bitcoin and other cryptoassets

First things first; fiat interest accrual rates are abysmal in the brick and mortar banking world

While trying to be a smart saver, I have always been on the look out for high yield interest accounts: My current fiat banker Ally offers a whopping Annual Percentage Yield of 0.50% on all balance tiers. My 401k provider Betterment offers a cash reserve account to earn 0.30% APY*…And is 5X the national average.**

As you can see…there are a lot of asterisks on these claims, (this APY is variable and subject to change daily).….and while an Annual Percentage Yield of 0.50% that Ally offers is quite higher the national average interest rate on savings accounts standing at 0.04% APY. It really doesn’t equate to that much money being earned.

Take this example of 10,000 dollars on an initial deposit. 0.5% APY for 12 month compounding daily with no extra deposits. Your ending balance for that year would be a 10,050.12. Congratulations you have made $50.12 this year on interest.

Bitcoin and the Evolution of Money

I first heard of Bitcoin in 2011/2012 as a broke college student. While learning about the origin of Bitcoin, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto all while having a crash course in economics…I was a bit overwhelmed. Was this a scam? Will this moment remind me of when I heard about the internet for the first time? Right then and there, I felt as though this magic internet money was cool, but really could only be used for illegal activities, or just to have to say you have it (for their rarity and symbolic value).

It took me until 2017 to actually buy Bitcoin. I bought 50 dollars worth of Bitcoin under $1000. I thought of it as a bit of a gamble. And also I finally had 50 dollars to roll the dice on some internet money

Now while this article isn’t meant to win people over on Bitcoin and other cryptoassets. I will plug one of the best article to read in regards to Bitcoin: The Bullish Case for Bitcoin by Vijay Boyapati.

Hodl on and Prosper

After trying to do some spot trading during the 2017 bull run and accumulating Bitcoin, Ether and other alt coins during that time. I have not been paying attention to Bitcoin and the overall “industry” for the past 3 years. But have hodl…ed

My biggest revelation now was that you could gain interest just by HODL’ing. This idea coupled with the rising price of Bitcoin and bull run piqued my interest once again. I was able to start “stackin sats” just hodling Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptoassets in supported software wallets.

Blockfi, Voyager, Celsius, and Ledn.io

The first Crypto wallet I explored to earn interest and buy crypto was BlockFi:

6% APY on Bitcoin, 5.25% APY on ETH. It all seemed to be good to be true. And in April 2021, it changed and the rates and amounts changed.

BlockFi had Gemini as a third party custodian. So I felt comfortable leaving my cryptoassets on a “hot wallet”.

Users get paid out monthly at the end of the month for Blockfi in either the cryptocurrency you deposited in, or you can explore the flex interest accrual. Which deposits the interest accrued in your pick: Bitcoin, Ether, Chainlink, and others or a stablecoin like GUSD and USDC.

Voyager Interest Rates

When the interest on these wallets decreased and I felt more comfortable moving around my bitcoin, is when I got to exploring other wallets that offer higher interest, support other coins and to be able to diversify my cryptoassets into different wallets in case something bad were to happen.

For a way more complete and comprehensive view on gaining interest on cryptocurrency I have to plug: Earning cryptocurrency interest: A comprehensive review. They have been huge in guiding me in this process.

From BlockFi, I landed on Voyager. And, as you can see in the screenshots they offer a handful more coins, but there is a required monthly average to hodl on those coins, to receive interest.

Celsius Rates

The next interest accruing wallet I landed on was Celsius. There was no minimum amount you needed to hodl to gain interest. And that interest is paid out weekly. Great if you are into the idea of DAC Dollar Average Cost your way into a large pile of Bitcoin… and also get paid out weekly.

The last one I have recently checked out was Ledn.io. This is where I have landed on in my journey to get the most bang for my buck. Ledn.io offers 6.10% interest on your Bitcoin and 11.00% on your USDC stablecoin.

To plan out this current 2021 bull run is to sell at the tippy top, convert to stablecoin, gain back that in Bitcoin interest, and then BUY THE DIP (if you are looking to weather the upcoming Bear Market and for the next halving which is expected to happen sometime in early 2024). This sounds like a sound plan, But to call the top is going to be a tough feat. Considering some people think the top was $64,805.00 on Apr 14, 2021.

My best bet as someone who bought under 1k is to think about this all in the long term….Also easier said than done because as of right now we are at -55.01% of the All Time High.

Hopefully this provided you a little guide to gaining some interest on your Bitcoin and other cryptoassets. And this is all coming from someone who isn’t a crypto Millionaire but trying to squeeze those sats together.