The cryptocurrency market has gone through a wild ride in the year of 2020-2021. The incumbent big brother Bitcoin has went on a tear from US$7K+ to a record high of US$63K+ before correcting almost 50% in the past 2 months (at the time of writing).
Nonetheless, one thing is pretty clear after so many boom and bust crypto market-cycles – Cryptocurrencies/Blockchain Tech is here to stay for the long run.
However, for those who want to sit out the volatile markets, they can actually turn to crypto staking. It is a strategy where you earn a high APY (Annual Percentage Yield) of up to 10.5%!
Enter Hodlnaut – the up-and-rising crypto firm in town!
Hodlnaut’s Corporate Profile
Hodlnaut is the leading crypto lending platform based in Singapore whose mission is to provide innovative financial services to cryptocurrency users.
This company is founded by Mr. Zhu Juntao, a graduate from the Singapore Management University where he joined Credit Suisse’s derivatives desk for 3 years before coming across cryptocurrency in 2017.
After incurring a hefty 55% capital gain tax crypto trading in Japan, it spurred him to set up Hodlnaut back in 2019 with his co-founder.
Today, the platform has over USD $234 million of Assets Under Management (AUM) and is growing at an average of 20% month on month.
Solving 2 Crypto Needs
If you are in the market long enough, you would realize that crypto traders are looking at 2 main needs:
1) Getting paid a high yield when parking their crypto assets for the mid-term
2) Swapping of the various tokens/coins with ease
And Hodlnaut has tackled these 2 primary needs pretty well with the features discussed in details below.
1) Earn up to incredible 12.7% Interest!
Users can earn up to 7.5% APY on Bitcoin and 12.7% APY for USDT and USDC.
At Hodlnaut, check out the link below for the effective annual interest rates for each of the platform’s supported coins:
Hodlnaut current tiered Interest Rates
The best part?
You can deposit and withdraw anytime with no minimum deposits or lock-in periods.
The amount of interest earned depends on a coin’s previous month’s performance and demand. Last but not least, the accumulated interest can be paid out weekly to your wallet too.
2) Token Swap
Moving on to the 2nd highly contended feature in the crypto world, users can swap between any of Hodlnaut’s supported tokens within the Hodlnaut platform easily.
This feature enables users to choose the type of asset in which they would like to earn interest. One example is how you can swap Ethereum with USDT instantly.
Users can also manage their portfolios as per their choice and rebalance their asset holdings without leaving the Hodlnaut platform. More importantly, Hodlnaut provides a highly competitive spread for this function compared to some of the big exchanges out there.
If you want, you can also check out Hodlnaut’s detailed ‘Step-by-Step Guide on How to Swap Tokens’ here.
Is Hodlnaut Safe?
Needless to say, many interested users would be skeptical given the bad reputation of crypto scams worldwide.
That said, Hodlnaut is a certified Fintech by the Singapore Fintech Association, an accreditation recognized by the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) and recognized by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore.
Hodlnaut is also currently undergoing license application under the PS Act 2019 (by the MAS) and is looking to become the first regulated entity in Singapore within the Crypto Borrowing and Lending Space.
Lastly, Hodlnaut knows that one of the major user concerns is the legitimacy and security of their funds when they deposit into a crypto platform. On that note, Hodlnaut has partnered with Nexus Mutual to offer users with the option to purchase additional insurance on their funds.
Keen users can check out this guide on how to purchase the insurance cover.
Common FAQs about Hodlnaut
Other questions may also pop up in your mind when we talk about a new crypto-related startup like Hodlnaut.
Hence, I have extracted a few common FAQs from the company’s FAQ page as shown below:
– What does Hodlnaut mean?
Hodlnaut is a combination of HODL and Astronaut! Hodl is common slang in the cryptocurrency community, where it depicts an act of holding the cryptocurrency rather than selling it.
– What measures have you taken to prevent loss of funds?
We have the incredibly stringent capital requirements of our counterparties. In any case, we are very selective with whom we lend out to. We only lend to corporate entities with good credit scores, and all of our loans are over-collateralized by at least 130%.
For this reason, the risk of default is very low. Like most of the DeFi products out there, we lend out to more than one counterparty to reduce counterparty risk.
– How can we [Hodlnaut] afford to pay the interest?
We lend out the assets we receive to established and vetted financial institutions that pay an interest rate.
As for the attractive interest rates, we analyze supply and demand on our available crypto assets to set a fluctuating interest rate that adjusts as market conditions change. Also, we take earnings from our previous months into consideration.
Conclusion
In summary, Hodlnaut will likely be interesting to crypto traders looking to park their funds in between the volatile crypto cycle.
It is also launching the iOS app in the next few weeks, targeting in July (end of Q2 or mid year).
Not only that, it could now also be a viable alternative for my emergency funds/cash stash while waiting for wedding or property renovation!
Use my referral link here to sign up and you will get a US$20 signup bonus!
Disclosure: This post is written in collaboration with Hodlnaut. All opinions are that of my own, and information accurate as of 16 June 2021.