Where to yield BTC while moving into another hot “DeFi summer”
Bitcoin has reached a record high in price and market cap during a global pandemic from 2020–2021, with Ethereum and altcoins reaching record highs as well. None of this seems to really be an accident, as cryptocurrency’s true foundational nature has been steadily getting ready to shine during chaos. The global modern day “gold rush” to get in while it’s hot during exciting peaks, and the ensuing drama during the inevitable valleys that are too plunging for the faint of heart, has attracted a whole new crowd to crypto who are making their first time buys or coding their first smart contracts. Mainstream adoption has also started to take place as financial institutions can no longer ignore the allure of the underlying technology towards improving current processes. But don’t let any of this fool you. Crypto is still a long way from its final destiny, and no one really knows what that destiny will be. You (the humble reader) still have a part to play in all of this, and there are more ways than ever before to get rewarded for your participation.
Accruing passive interest on BTC assets
For those who want to start seeing their crypto investments putting in the time and accruing interest — a testament to another stage of maturity for the asset — a high profile industry leader is BlockFi, who has developed a sophisticated rewards system involving monthly interest payouts on assets managed by their system. They also boast a high-level risk and security management strategy throughout the company, addressing still one of the major pain points in crypto. Securing personal customer data, a collusion-free internal staff protocol, strong encryption, disaster plans, and two-factor authentication are some of the bar setting measures they’ve put in place to assure people that their crypto assets are better off being actively taken care of. In addition to the service of providing interest, they also offer loans, trade, and an emerging credit card with rewards. This could potentially be your highest return-for-labor option heading into the summer months for passive Bitcoin income. They also are offering a referral program that yields BTC as encouragement for early investors here.
Getting rewards from a DAO
Moving back towards DeFi, another player that cannot be missed in yield farming is Badger DAO. They are fully on a mission to bring Bitcoin to the Ethereum blockchain and launch products that are tantalizing for both sides in the DeFi space. Around 11,000 BTC are currently locked inside the Badger Protocol and they are offering the “Sett” token to deposit tokenized Bitcoin into and received additional yield, as well as the “Digg” token which is referred to as an elastic supply cryptocurrency pegged to the price of Bitcoin. You can read more on how their DAO fully operates here. Another way to make the most out of your tokenized Bitcoin, (WBTC or other tokenized) is to deposit it into liquidity pools such as Curve Finance or Harvest. If your Bitcoin happens to be Binance Smart Chain wrapped BTCB, then a newly launched yield optimizing protocol named beefy might be right for you. When comparing yield protocols and deciding where to leverage your assets, it is always important to take the overall withdrawal and performance fees into consideration, as well as the necessary blockchain transaction fees. Return of investment can change dramatically given some of these factors.
Mining BTC through selling mining power
For those a little more on the adventurous side, there are options like NiceHash, where you can sell the idle computing power of your CPU/GPU to earn BTC. This is done through their QuickMiner and Miner programs, whereby your CPU’s power is being used to supply hashing power to other miners who are actively mining these coins and contributing to the group’s output. What is nice about this is that you still get paid BTC at regular intervals, but there are stipulations towards making this venture actually profitable, and you can read more about that here.
Stacking stacks
Last but not least, “Stacking Stacks” is named appropriately as one of the new ways to earn passive BTC yield up to 20% this year. They are definitely preparing for a hot DeFi summer with their service launched by Floating Point Group earlier this year. Their service paves the way for institutional clients to earn passive yield on their STX holdings, a game changer for larger clients and a step away from only traditional mining opportunities. The stacking part happens by holding STX in a special wallet that allows this return cycle to occur. Investors need to reach a certain threshold of STX to begin accruing these rewards, but traditional mining is still available to reach this as well. Pools have begun to form in their ecosystem to address this stipulation and begin earning rewards on the continuous two-week lock cycles. This is a significant step forward for BTC yield and strengthening the asset overall. Read more about this here.
So, what are you waiting for? Get ready for another hot DeFi summer and earning the world’s strongest cryptocurrency Bitcoin while you’re at it. Some more honorable mention projects can be found here.
