Traders are garnering juicy returns by lending out cryptocurrencies as the fast-growing field of decentralised finance throws up new but highly risky opportunities to make money.
The number of consumer-oriented platforms offering yields on crypto balances have grown rapidly, with annual interest rates ranging about 7 to 12 per cent for various coins such as bitcoin and “stablecoins” like tether.
Traders can chase even higher rates through “yield farming”, the practice of scouring the world of decentralised finance — or DeFi — for the best yields available from more obscure projects and coins. These shortlived opportunities can advertise interest rates as high as several thousand per cent to pull in digital cash.