Hodlnaut Review 2023: A High-Yield Savings Account For Your Crypto
With interest rates still being relatively low, many investors are looking for alternative ways to generate returns from their assets. Hodlnaut, a crypto platform, allows crypto investors to receive interest from keeping their crypto assets in the platform.
These types of interest-bearing crypto accounts can provide an intriguing alternative to traditional bank accounts. But it should be noted that they're generally significantly more risky compared to traditional bank accounts. Investors risk the loss of capital as a tradeoff for receiving higher yields.
Commissions & Fees - 7
Customer Service - 7
Crypto Variety - 6
Ease of Use - 8
7
Hodlnaut is a crypto platform that makes it easy—and lucrative—to hold on for dear life
What Is Hodlnaut?
Hodlnaut was established in 2019 by CEO Juntao Zhu and CTO Simon Lee. It's a relatively smaller player in the space, with only $100,000 of known funding as of March 31, 2022.
Holdnaut derives its name from HODL, a revered acronym and a way of life for crypto investors that stands for Hold On For Dear Life. True to its name, Hodlnaut allows its users to purchase cryptocurrencies directly in the app and hold those assets while they gain weekly interest on their investment.
What Do They Offer?
Hodlnaut offers high-interest yields on your crypto assets, as well as a growing suite of products to create and manage your crypto portfolio. The app has recently added features like getting paid your interest in your preferred cryptocurrency, as well as in-app token swaps by market price or market order. Hodlnaut also offers one free crypto withdrawal per month and has plans to add more crypto tokens as well.
How Does It Work?
Earning interest with Hodlnaut is as easy as signing up for a free account and downloading the mobile app. A common question new users have is: “How is Hodlnaut able to afford to pay out interest?”
It's simple: The same way your bank is able to pay you interest from a savings account. They just do it on the blockchain—by taking their crypto assets and lending them out to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and vetted financial institutions that pay an interest rate to Hodlnaut.
In turn, these sites lend them to margin traders who also pay a borrowing rate to their designated exchanges. As a result, they're able to offer up to 13.73% APY on your held assets.
It should be noted that this is not a risk-free yield. Users should have a relatively high risk tolerance and be willing to risk losing significant – or at worst – all of their capital when using these products.
Main Features
Crypto interest accounts allow users to deposit supported crypto and begin to earn interest. Note that you're allowed one free withdrawal on the account every month and then will incur fees (more details below) on additional withdrawals.
Though mostly known for interest accounts, Hodlnaut also offers users additional products for their crypto holdings. These include token swaps and fixed term deposits.
If you’re looking to rebalance your crypto portfolio, Hodlnaut’s token swap feature allows you to swap one token for another. Supported tokens include:
Hodlnaut is continually adding new tokens and features to its platform.
For crypto investors who can afford to lock in their assets for longer terms, Holdnaut also offers the option for lock-in their assets for 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days for higher interest rates.
Who Is It For?
Assuming you’re willing to risk the capital you put in, Hodlnaut can be a good platform for crypto traders of all experience levels due to relatively easy execution.
Casual investors can simply hold their assets, without bothering with the potentially complicated mechanisms of staking and liquidity pools. With Hodlnaut, you can simply invest in the largest crypto projects and accumulate interest on your crypto portfolio over time.
How Do I Open an Account?
Opening an account with Hodlnaut is easy and can be broken down into five simple steps:
- Download the Hodlnaut app from either the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. You can also use the desktop site at www.hodlnaut.com.
- Create a free account with Hodlnaut and verify your email address.
- Enable 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) to ensure your account stays protected.
- Complete your Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.
- Deposit your crypto assets and start earnings high interest APY on your investments.
Account-holders can also access Hodlnaut’s new account bonus: If you deposit $1,000 or more in crypto assets, you get a free $20 added to your account. They also have a referral program where each person you refer that deposits $1,000 or more will receive an extra bonus of $30. As the referrer, you will also receive an extra bonus of $30.
Fees
Like many fintech platforms, Hodlnaut has some fees and limits it needs to charge its users. However, there are no fees for depositing your crypto assets to your account. You also get one free withdrawal each month of the crypto asset of your choice. Additional withdrawals have the following fees attached to them.
| Asset | Minimum Withdrawal Amount | Transaction Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | > 0.0004 BTC | 0.0004 BTC |
| Dai | > 10 Dai | 10 Dai |
| Ethereum | >0.0036 ETH | 0.0036ETH |
| USD Coin | >10 USDC | 10 USDC |
| Tether | >10 USDT | 10 USDT |
| Wrapped Bitcoin | >0.0004 WBTC | 0.0004 WBTC |
These fees can potentially be significant. DAI, USDC, and Tether are all stable coins pegged to the US Dollar. So for each transaction you're paying $10.00 USD to withdraw from Hodlnaut. Note that these amounts can change due to current crypto market volatility.
Customer Service
There is currently no phone support for Hodlnaut. Additionally, users outside of Asia should note that Hodlnaut is based in Singapore and its customer support operates on Singapore business hours, which are 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM in Singaporean time.
For those in the US, this means 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM for users in the Eastern Standard time zone, and 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM for users in the Pacific Standard time zone. You can contact Hodlnaut customer service through email or leave a message in the live chat.
Is Holdnaut Safe?
The high interest rates you can receive through a platform like Hodlnaut gives them an edge over traditional banks in regards to returns.
However, in contrast to having a savings account in a traditional bank, investors should realize that any capital put into interest-bearing crypto accounts can be lost. Crypto interest accounts are not protected by FDIC insurance. So if a platform like Hodlnaut was to file for bankruptcy (like Voyager recently did), there's a real risk that it wouldn't be able to return your lent crypto assets.
Hodlnaut hosts its site using Amazon Web Services. All of its web and mobile traffic are SSL-encrypted.
Hodlnaut also stores all of its crypto in cold wallets, which are not connected to the internet and thus serves as an extra layer of security against getting hacked or compromised. But, again, Hodlnaut does loan its crypto assets out to other exchanges — and at that point the custody of the loaned assets is under the security of another site.
Hodlnaut Pros & Cons
Below are some of the pros and cons of using Hodlnaut:
pros
cons
Best Hodlnaut Alternatives
Please note that investing in these alternative interest-bearing crypto accounts can also result in the loss of capital.
BlockFi
BlockFi is a US-based crypto exchange that allows users to earn high interest yields on their crypto assets, similar to Hodlnaut. Its interest rates may be slightly lower than Hodlnaut, particularly for stablecoins.
However, BlockFi allows users to deposit a wider variety of different crypto assets as well as fiat currencies directly into the app. BlockFi also pays its interest out on a daily basis. BlockFi users can take out loans by using their crypto assets as collateral—though this feature can be very risky.
*Note that U.S. residents are not currently able to open BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIA), but will be able to open “BlockFi Yield” accounts once this new product goes live.
BlockFi Bankruptcy Notice -On November 10, 2022, BlockFi announced that it had to suspend withdrawals from its platform due to the FTX liquidity crisis. As a result, consumers should not be using the BlockFi platform. As of November 28, 2022, BlockFi officially declared bankruptcy.Nexo
Nexo is more like a traditional crypto exchange. Users can buy, sell, and trade dozens of different crypto tokens directly on the daily markets. But unlike other crypto exchanges, users on Nexo can earn up to a 17% APY on their crypto assets, paid out to their Nexo wallet on a daily basis.
There are some stipulations to gain Nexo’s highest interest rates, namely a minimum account balance and a minimum percentage of that account in NEXO tokens. They also offer a Nexo Mastercard Debit card, crypto asset borrowing through margin accounts, and of course, desktop and mobile apps for both iOS and Android.
DimeFi
DimeFi is another platform that is attempting to make decentralized finance (DeFi) accessible to US investors. This app allows users to directly link to their bank accounts via Plaid, and begin depositing fiat currency directly to their DimeFi accounts. Users can start earning daily interest immediately after depositing it to their wallet.
DimeFi has an impressive range of accepted currencies including USDC, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Luna, Avax, and Solana. It allows users to withdraw crypto assets directly to other wallets via on-chain transactions, which means that users only pay the network or gas fees associated with that particular blockchain. It's only available in the US right now, but the platform has future plans to expand.
More on Exchanges>>The Best Crypto Exchanges for 2023
Bottom Line: Is it Worth It?
Hodlnaut can serve as a stepping stone for new crypto investors to get their feet wet before taking on more advanced strategies. Although Holdnaut is a smaller player in the space, it may be worth checking out if you're looking for solid interest yields.
However, investors should understand that interest-bearing crypto accounts are generally significantly more risky compared to traditional bank accounts. And as noted multiple times above, any capital put in can be lost.
For other ideas on hands-off investing, check out our guide on How to Automate Your Investments.
Further reading:
- Best Crypto Staking and Lending Platforms
- How to Invest in Cryptocurrency Without Buying Coins
- How to Spot a Crypto Scam
Disclaimer: The content presented is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or professional advice. If any securities were mentioned in the content, the author may hold positions in the mentioned securities. The content is provided ‘as is’ without any representations or warranties, express or implied.
