Coinbase, the largest exchange in terms of crypto reserves held, has announced the introduction of a savings program tied to usd coin. The company’s high yield USDC savings program allows customers to gain 4% APY interest on stablecoin accounts.

Coinbase Reveals USDC Savings Program With Interest Rates Eight-Times Higher the national average

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced pre-enrollment for its usd coin (USDC) savings program that allows clients to earn a 4% APY interest rate on USDC held on the platform.

Coinbase joins firms like Blockfi and Crypto.com that already offer interest on USDC stablecoin holdings. Still, Coinbase highlights in its announcement on Tuesday, that 4% APY on USDC is “more than 8x the national average of high-yield savings accounts.”

“Everyone wants to get the best interest rate available for the assets they hold,” Coinbase explained in a statement. “But interest rates have decreased steadily over the past few decades, making it difficult to earn meaningful passive income on your assets,” the company said. Coinbase added:

The national average for a traditional savings account hovers around 0.07%, with high-yield savings accounts still falling well short of even 1%.

Coinbase’s entry into the stablecoin savings products also follows Circle’s USDC business product, which was launched in November 2020. At the time, Circle revealed the launch of high-yield USDC business accounts with APY up to 10.75%. Additionally, Circle just announced five days ago, it would be launching a new API so companies can connect to high-yield decentralized finance (defi) platforms.

Coinbase and Circle are the founding members of the Centre consortium and with a number of other consortium members, Centre is the issuer and custodian of the usd coin (USDC) project.

In order to get more information on Coinbase’s USDC pre-enrollment, U.S. customers can sign up at the web portal coinbase.com/lend. After an individual gains approval, they will “automatically start to earn 4% APY on the USDC” they hold in their Coinbase account. The company does detail that “APY may change at any time before you start lending.”

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