The Block: Blockchain to launch interest-bearing accounts with initial support for bitcoin

Crypto wallet and services provider Blockchain.com is set to roll out interest-bearing accounts, letting users earn yields on their bitcoin deposits.

Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com is best known for its bitcoin blockchain explorer and cryptocurrency wallet services. According to information shared with The Block, 28% of all bitcoin transactions in 2020 took place in Blockchain.com wallets.

But the company has recently started branching out to other lines of business, launching an institutional lending desk in August 2019 and a retail lending desk in March 2020. On Wednesday, Blockchain.com announced its plan to expand its product offerings further to include an interest-bearing account.

Blockchain.com is not the only firm offering yields on crypto deposits. BlockFi, for example, started providing interest-bearing accounts last August, marketing an up to 8.6% annual interest on crypto-assets such as BTC, ETH, LTC, and USDC. Celsius, Nexo, and Crypto.com have also released similar products.

Blockchain.com’s new service will only support bitcoin at the outset, offering up to 4.5% annual interest on users’ bitcoin deposits. But the team said that it is working on adding other assets like ETH and USDT in the future. The firm stressed that users in the United States, Canada, and Japan would not be able to access the new service at launch.

With regard to its recently launched retail lending business – which allows users to borrow USD-pegged stablecoin, USD Digital, against bitcoin held in their Blockchain.com wallets – the company said that it will soon make it available to U.S. customers and enable support for new crypto assets.

Additionally, the company is adding USDT and ALGO to the list of assets supported by its wallet, which also includes BCH, ETH, and XLM.

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