How to make money with stablecoins or stable coins.
The safest way to store stablecoins is in a self-custody wallet, even if you cannot earn any returns from them. If you decide to earn more with your stablecoins, keep in mind that these options are not without risks, however minimal they may be. Always try to do them on secure, popular, and widely used platforms.
Some of the risks may come from the platforms themselves, whether centralized or not, from smart contracts, trading, rug pulls, etc...
DYOR: Always Do Your Own Research.
How to invest in stablecoins
The most common way to make money with stablecoins is by investing in them. But how can you make money with them if their value doesn't fluctuate? The key is to manage your portfolio.
Although this may sound good and easy, it is actually very difficult to achieve as it requires experience and psychology is not usually helpful in these cases. Therefore, we recommend that you read and thoroughly educate yourself on this subject if you are investing in cryptocurrencies. And, as always, DYOR: Do Your Own Research.
Although cryptocurrency portfolio management can be a topic for many articles and there are dozens of strategies you can apply, we want to highlight only two points:
- Buy the dip. This means buying when the markets are down. If you really want to make money with cryptocurrencies, you shouldn't buy when they reach historical highs, but rather the opposite. It also doesn't mean that you should do it throughout an entire bear market, but rather when there are significant corrections or important resistance levels are broken. Not all tokens are suitable: a cryptocurrency may be in a downward spiral and never recover. This strategy should be applied to blue-chip cryptocurrencies or ones that you truly believe will recover. In order to do this, you should always have a percentage of your portfolio in stablecoins.
- Take profit. The high returns that many cryptocurrencies have had in the past have led some investors to hold onto their coins expecting further appreciation. However, in many cases, this does not happen, resulting in missed opportunities or even having to sell at a loss. Don't be greedy. Set targets, achieve them, and take profits in stablecoins to then "buy the dip" again.
This does not constitute investment advice. We emphasize once again the importance of education before applying any strategy. It is only a reminder that it is always recommended to take profits and, if you have liquidity, try to buy during market downturns.
Stablecoin Staking
Another way to make money with stablecoins is by participating in staking processes. Although stablecoins do not usually implement staking natively, there are platforms that do allow staking of stablecoins. In this case, the benefits do not come from validating network transactions, but from other methods such as lending.
The best platform for staking stablecoins is undoubtedly Nexo, as it offers returns of up to 12% on all stablecoins, including fiat deposits such as the euro, dollar, or pound sterling.
Nexo has been paying these returns for years and has proven to be a very secure platform. It also offers multiple services such as a borrowing platform, a credit card for cryptocurrency payments, several free cryptocurrency withdrawals per month (you don't even pay network fees), an exchange with very low fees and the best prices (compare prices on various exchanges and offers the best exchange to its users), a futures platform...
If this is not enough for you, we further improve the offer thanks to an agreement with the platform: If you deposit a minimum of $100 of any cryptocurrency and leave it in Nexo for 30 days, you will receive a $25 BTC reward. In addition, during those 30 days, you will earn a return on the deposited cryptocurrency. Absolutely crazy.
And you're losing money by keeping it parked in the bank... Don't hesitate to withdraw it and send it to Nexo.
Besides Nexo, you can also stake stablecoins on most exchanges. In this case, the best one is undoubtedly Binance. Not only because it has better APR and more stable coins than the competition, but also because of its low fees and wide range of services.
In addition, thanks to an agreement we have reached with them, you can get up to $100 off on fees if you register through the following link and complete some simple tasks they ask you to do at the beginning.
It is also possible to stake on many other exchanges. The advantage of most of them is that if you are a new user, they usually offer a period of time (usually 5 to 7 days) where they offer ridiculously high APR so that you can try their platform. If you have a good amount of stablecoin, a good strategy would be to try several of them, take advantage of these high returns, and then leave the stablecoins in the one you liked the most or the one that worked best for you.
Some of these exchanges are: Gate.io, Huobi, CoinEx, or Bitget.
How to stake Tether (USDT)
To start earning money with USDT, all you have to do is make a deposit in Nexo. You will start receiving daily returns on your stablecoins directly. Additionally, you can lock it for a period of time or purchase NEXO, the platform's token, to further increase your returns.
On the other hand, if you want to stake USDT on an exchange, you generally have to place it in your staking account. Look for it in the exchange sections, usually under the names "Earn" or "Staking". Sometimes, to obtain higher returns, you can lock your stablecoins for a certain period of time.
How to stake USD Coin (USDC)
Staking USDC is identical to staking USDC and is usually available on all platforms. Simply make a deposit in Nexo to start generating yields.
Similarly, you can also do it on other exchanges in the "Earn" or "Staking" sections.
Liquidity Pool - Stablecoin Yield Farming
Another way to make money with stablecoins is by participating in a liquidity pool or doing yield farming.
Liquidity pools are asset funds used by decentralized exchanges to allow for cryptocurrency exchanges. This pool is supplied by the users themselves, and in return, all the fees generated by the pool are distributed proportionally among those providing liquidity.
Sometimes these pools are incentivized by platforms, and in addition to fees, you can earn additional tokens, which increases profitability. Investing your stablecoins to earn money through these tokens is known as yield farming.
One of the main disadvantages of this type of investment is impermanent loss: as cryptocurrency prices fluctuate, the proportions of the pool also fluctuate, which may result in earning less than if you had simply held onto your cryptos.
However, stablecoins have a great advantage in this regard: if you provide liquidity in a stable pool, meaning a pool where the prices of the two tokens are closely related, you will not experience impermanent loss. For example, if you provide liquidity in a USDT-USDC pool, you will receive part of the fees generated by the pool without losing money due to impermanent loss.
Although this is a typical investment of decentralized protocols, some centralized exchanges also offer this type of investment to their users. If you are a beginner, these exchanges are undoubtedly the best way to start, even if the yields are lower. Look for "Liquidity Pools" options on your exchange and find a pair that involves two stablecoins (USDT-USDC, USDT-BUSD...)
Undoubtedly, the best option to start, due to its wide range of services, is once again Binance, although you can also use some of the exchanges mentioned above.
Once you understand how liquidity pools work on centralized exchanges, you can try decentralized ones, where you can find much more attractive returns, up to 20 or 30%. To find the best pools, you can use the Yields section of DeFiLlama, filter by stablecoins, and look for a pair involving two of them.
Educate yourself thoroughly beforehand and understand how they work. Many attractive APRs can also involve very high risks or even scams.
Delegating management to specialized stablecoin platforms
Financial managers and investment funds are often costly and inaccessible to small investors. In addition, the fees associated with these services can significantly decrease profits. Luckily, there are alternatives in the market that allow investors to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by stablecoins without having to face these disadvantages.
One of these solutions is Rand, a platform that combines investment in stablecoins with a savings and rewards system. Rand takes care of managing its users' investments in cryptocurrencies securely and profitably, while offering guaranteed returns and without the costs associated with traditional financial managers.
Furthermore, if you decide to register on Rand through this link, you can get a €5 bonus if you use the same email address to register in the app. For more information about Rand and how it works, you can check out our article about the Rand app.
Other ways to make money with stablecoins
Decentralized finance or DeFi has opened up a wide range of possibilities in the crypto space to earn extra income on your stablecoins.
Yield farming but through lending platforms, leveraging, real yield, providing liquidity on futures platforms or gambling platforms.... You will continuously find new terminology associated with new protocols.
Many of them will offer much higher APRs than those we have mentioned. But remember one thing: Higher yields also mean higher risks.
For example, on gambling platforms or futures platforms, you provide liquidity to a pool that users operate with. If users lose money, it will be distributed among those who provide this liquidity, but if they win, they will take it from the pool, so you will lose part of the money you have provided.
These types of platforms usually offer high APRs (even above 50% annually) because the reality is that a large percentage of users who place bets or invest in futures lose money. The performance they show is a reflection of the past, but it may not be maintained in the future: If any event causes users to make money, liquidity providers will lose it.
In conclusion, the usual advice: Get educated and do your own research on each of the protocols you want to invest in.
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