The crypto bull market is back, and with it advertisements for ultra-high yield opportunities to lure bitcoin from investors’ wallets. Unsurprisingly, centralized offerings and nascent DeFi projects are bull market-sizing their annual percentage yields (APYs).
ZeroLend, for example, an experimental, decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, offers an irresponsible 61% APR denominated in a bitcoin-branded token called Lombard BTC. This token is currently worth approximately the same as bitcoin.
It’s important to note that bitcoin itself, which is not proof-of-stake (PoS), offers no native yield. Nevertheless, by introducing risks like proprietary trading or lending customers’ deposits, centralized services like M2, WireX, or CoinHold raise that passive rate to 8%. EarnPark doubles the rate to 15%.
Bitcoin APYs cannot be compared to fiat benchmarks like the US prime rate of 8% and unlike PoS assets like ETH or SOL, holding BTC does not yield passive BTC.
For speculators looking for APYs above 15%, less conventional offerings are available for even more degenerate yields on bitcoin.
Looping up yields through bitcoin-themed DeFi
By daisy-chaining a series of protocols including Ethereum, ZeroLend, Lombard, Contango, and Babylon, bitcoin investors can earn outsized returns if everything goes according to plan.
Read more: Ethena offers 27% on stablecoins but where is the yield coming from?
Unlike the US dollar’s 4.53% risk-free interest rate, BTC has no risk-free interest rate. Nevertheless, conventional custodians and DeFi platforms are dangling APRs and APYs starting in the high-single digits and reaching into the high-double digits for bitcoin speculators.
With history as a guide — recalling Celsius, Voyager, Gemini Earn, and other disasters — investors should remember that high-yield bitcoin advertisements often have grave risks of total loss.