5 Cryptoassets You Are Paid to Borrow

Though the crypto market is on a downtrend, DeFi still offers opportunities. More specifically, Compound has been paying borrowers of some of the most popular cryptoassets — BAT, LINK, UNI, WBTC, and ZRX — for more than a month.

What enables these negative borrow rates are the COMP token rewards paid to borrowers on Compound: if the COMP rewards exceed the base borrow rate, borrowers are effectively paid for the duration of their loan. Let’s take a closer look at these 5 Compound pools.

We find the relevant data on the Compound page of Yield Samurai, ordering the pools by BAPR (Borrow Annual Percentage Rate) in ascending order, and then looking at the individual pool data of the top results.

1. BAT

Over the past month, borrowers of Basic Attention Token (BAT) on Compound have been paid 4.63% for their troubles, the base rate being 4%, COMP rewards 8.63%. The rate seems stable as data for the past week paints a similar picture: -4.33% borrow rate, with 4.02% base rate and 8.35% in COMP rewards.

2. LINK

Chainlink’s own LINK token is also at a negative interest rate on Compound. The average borrow rate for the past 30 days is -3.75% (6.27% base rate and 10.02% COMP rewards). Looking at the data for the past week shows that the average borrow rate has dropped even more, down to -5.18%.

3. UNI

Uniswap’s utility token UNI has averaged -3.06% borrow rate for the past month (4.57% base rate and 7.63% COMP rewards). However, data from the past week and day marks the borrow rate on an uptrend, its average being, respectively, -2.92% and -1.66%.

4. WBTC

Yes, even Wrapped Bitcoin is at a negative interest rate, namely -2.64% over the past 30 days (3.49% base rate and 6.13% COMP rewards). For the past week, the average borrow rate is -1.71%, which is slightly lower than the same for the past 24 hours (-1.64%).

5. ZRX

Finally, we have trading aggregator 0x’s ZRX token, with an average borrow rate of -0.79% for the past month (5.76% base and 6.55% COMP rewards). Even better, the borrow rate has dropped to an average of -1.71% for the past week and -1.89% in the last 24 hours.

Bonus: ETH

Compound is also paying you to borrow ETH: the average borrow rate for the past month being -0.13% (2.75% base and 2.88% COMP rewards). Moreover, the rate has dropped significantly recently, averaging -1.25% for the past week and -1.71% in the last 24 hours.