Nexo vs. BlockFi vs. Celsius Network- 3 months later
I started using all three of these services a few months ago and want to share updates as I have more familiarity with each service and have so far really enjoyed my experience on all of them for different reasons. I initially started by loaning out stablecoins on each platform. However, my overall strategy has changed as more of my stablecoins got sucked into both Bitcoin and Altcoins as the market has ballooned. I still maintain a large portion of my portfolio in stablecoins, but have diversified to try to take advantage of this bull run.
Keep in mind that I am not giving financial advice and there are risks with loaning any coins on these sites. I personally feel comfortable allocating a portion of my portfolio on these sites as they survived the huge crash back in March and I don’t have the time, patience, or full understanding to yield farm via DeFi sites. Here’s some updates on changes and what I like and dislike about each service.
1) Nexo- In my last article, I was disappointed at the performance in my Nexo tokens that I held to maximize my payouts for lending. Boy have things changed in just the past couple of weeks! Nexo made some huge improvements to their tokenomics and the Nexo token is one of my best performing holdings. The company is now paying increased interest payouts to people who accept interest payments in Nexo tokens. Unfortunately, in the US, we are unable to take advantage of this. However, these changes have really supercharged the value of holding Nexo tokens.
I really like that withdrawing cryptos from Nexo is fast and easy. It happens very quickly and I have found that I use their platform as a wallet more so than the other ones. The app is very user friendly and I like the interface, but recently the wallet doesn’t always show up. I also like that they pay interest on a good variety of cryptocurrencies. Getting paid interest daily is really nice and it’s rewarding and reassuring to see that I make more interest in a day on my stablecoins in Nexo than I would in a month in a traditional savings account.
2) BlockFi- BlockFi pays the lowest interest on stablecoins but one big benefit that I’ve been using is the cryptocurrency exchange built in. I think that it’s a 1.1% spread each direction approximately so it’s not as cheap as Kraken or Coinbase Pro or Binance, but the convenience is well worth it for me. I find myself buying cryptocurrency daily on BlockFi. I have a strategy to dollar cost average every day and I also like that I can buy Paxgold and get interest on it. I’ve elected to get paid interest via Bitcoin which has worked extremely well in the past few months. These gains on my interest payouts have actually translated to a significantly higher return for the time being. Interest is paid at the end of the month and I like seeing that bump in my BTC on the first.
BlockFi also allows ACH deposits. This is much more convenient than buying stablecoins from an exchange and transferring them to BlockFi. Read the fine print though because I believe it does require you to leave the funds for at least 90 days. I like the app quite a bit and think that it’s easy to use and very streamlined. It is sometimes buggy and I’ve had to delete and reload the app twice. They only pay interest on a limited number of cryptos so that may turn some users away. Additionally, they announced that they are offering a Bitcoin rewards credit card soon that I look forward to getting.
3) Celsius- Celsius bumped their payout on stablecoins to the highest level of the three platforms. They also offer the largest variety and highest interest rates of these platforms. They offer an increased payout in Cel tokens which I, unfortunately, don’t qualify for in the US. However, the Cel token has been one of the best performing coins in the entire space over the past year!
I like the app and am very appreciative that it now offers Face ID login. Interest is paid every Monday and that’s a bright spot to start the week. I’ve withdrawn crypto a few times from the platform, but want to say there was some delay which I found frustrating. Additionally, they do maintenance on their app regularly, but are very good at communicating it ahead of time. I wish that they had an exchange like BlockFi and find that their trading partners are a little bit too high priced for my strategy. While it seems like I am complaining about Celsius, it’s only because I would love these changes to be implemented so that I can use it more.
Final Thoughts- I really like all three platforms and find that each offers its own unique advantages. I also like using all three to spread my risk and because I get interest payouts daily, weekly, and monthly. These platforms are much better than a traditional bank for earning interest. However, I have found that having the money in stablecoins makes it very tempting to diversify into other coins and have found that I have done so. This is great in a bull market, but time will tell if this has just been a way that I’ve justified putting my money in the casino. For people with greater restraint, you will be hard pressed to find an 8–10% yield on crypto backed by fiat. Thank you for reading my article. If you have interest in opening accounts on BlockFi or Celsius, my referral links are below and we both get a bonus if you fund an account!
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