Crypto Finance Has Arrived Bitcompare helps both retail and professional investors earn more yield, get better loans, find the most cost-effective exchanges and more

Cryptocurrencies have garnered a lot attention of late with Bitcoin price skyrocketing once again and new assets such as NFTs showing new, innovative ways to apply the technology.

Today, the cryptocurrency industry is estimated to be worth more than $792.53 million and is expected to reach more than $5 trillion by 2026. With its ballooning market cap and ever increasing retail and institutional interest, a new set of companies and platforms have emerged that allow people to do even more with cryptocurrencies. This has led to what some people call a "parallel financial services industry".

This is where Bitcompare comes in. It was created to help both retail and professional investors earn more yield, get better loans, find the most cost-effective exchanges and more.

How it started

Bitcompare was initially started as a simple spreadsheet after its founder, Dean Fankhauser, was trying to help his friends and family earn interest on their Bitcoin. The spreadsheet would break down things such as interest rates, whether those rates compounded, what the fees were, how trustworthy each platform was and more.

This humble spreadsheet soon turned into a website after more people asked him to share it. The website was scrappy, but it did the job. A few visitors per month soon turned into hundreds of visitors per month, then thousands, tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands. Revenue began to pour in and before he knew it, it was clear there was a need for this type of service.

Fankhauser isn't new to creating marketplaces. Prior to Bitcompare, Fankhauser created Nuji which was an e-commerce platform which was later sold to Klarna. The experience of creating Nuji and taking it through the full lifecycle of scrappy startup to exit has helped him accelerate Bitcompare's growth and profitability by applying everything he learned previously.

Crypto savings accounts

Crypto savings accounts really started to kick-off 18 months ago. You had centralized finance companies such as BlockFi and decentralised finance companies such as Aave. Both types of platforms have their pros and cons. For people who are happy to have a centrally operated company that's regulated in the US and just want a familiar, simple user experience, companies like BlockFi and Nexo are the way to go. For those of you who consider yourself much more crypto-advanced and are comfortable with Ethereum Wallets, maybe Aave is a better choice.

Put simply, a crypto savings account is no different to a traditional savings account. You put money in and watch it earn interest. To most people this sounded too good to be true, and in some cases it is. That's why it's always worth doing your due diligence. However, it's pretty simple, people can lend or borrow with these platforms. If you borrow, you pay interest, that interest is then paid to the lender and the platform takes a cut. Just like any other bank. The main difference is that crypto lending platforms overcollaterlize. That means that in order to borrow five Bitcoin, you'll need to put 10 Bitcoin up as collateral. It essentially makes the loan risk free for all parties.

Crypto loans

Whilst lending is pretty simple to wrap your head around, getting a crypto loan may seem stranger. Why would you want to get a crypto loan? The main reason people do it is because it saves them from having to liquidate their cryptocurrency holdings and create a taxable event. Let's say you want to get a kitchen renovation. You could sell your crypto, pay capital gains tax on it and miss out on its upside. Or you could just use it as collateral to get a loan to pay for the kitchen, keep your Bitcoin and enjoy its upside without any taxable event occurring.

Crypto credit cards

Imagine being able to pay for goods with a credit card that rewarded you in Bitcoin instead of frequent flyers. Well, now you can. There's a whole bunch of platforms launching such credit cards over the coming months including BlockFi, Gemini, Fold and many more. They vary in rewards offered, fees, availability and more, but this will be hitting like a tsunami in 2021.

Exchanges

You'd be surprised the differences in fees, prices of crypto, security, trustworthiness, country available and more. Crypto exchanges vary wildly and there are now thousands of them. Only a few years ago you only had a handful to choose from with Coinbase generally being at the top of the list. Now you've got options and BlockFi help make sense of it all.

Bitcompare is clearly becoming a full-fledged platform where people can compare the leading platforms such as Coinbase, BlockFi, Binance, Nexo, and more.

IRAs

Bitcoin and crypto IRAs are now a thing? You bet. Imagine being able to put a tax optimised IRA to work with the best performing asset of the last decade. Sounds like a dream and now there's a whole bunch of platforms to choose from who so it. They're all listed on Bitcompare with in-depth reviews and comparisons.

How do you choose?

As you can see, the crypto industry isn't just exploding in price, but it's also exploding in amazing financial services that can help you do more with your assets. As more of these financial services enter the market, you can have Bitcompare help make sense of them all for you, so you don't have to.