Compare AQRU vs Coinloan

Crypto withdrawls on AQRU are not instant. They are processed daily at 2pm UTC. This means that if you make a withdrawl request at 3pm UTC you will have to wait until 2pm UTC the next day before it is processed. Once withdrawl requests begin processed at 2pm UTC they normally seem to complete by 3pm UTC in our experience.

If you have yoru funds invested in one of AQRU's investment products you will first need to withdraw your funds back in to your AQRU crypot wallet by selling the investment product. Only then can you make a withdrawl request to an external wallet.

Crypto withdrawls also attract fees. There is a $10 USD fee for Bitcoin withdrawls and a $20 USD fee for all other crypto withdrawls. There is no fee for fiat withdrawls.

There is no record of AQRU undertaking a blanket freeze of withdrawls across the platform. Some users have experienced delays in withdrawls as AQRU has been obliged to to ask further questions about the transfer to comply with its regulatory obligations.

On 26 April 2023 Coinloan froze all withdrawals in response to a Notice of Restraint issued by the Estonian Government. Further details are provided in this detailed Reddit post.

If your funds are invested in a Coinloan savings account and you want to withdraw them from the platform you must first make a withdrawal request from the savings account back to to your Coinloan wallet. These withdrawals from savings accounts are not instant. Savings account withdrawals are processed every day at 14:00 UTC. This means you could be waiting up to 24 hours for your withdrawal request to be actioned.

Once funds have been returned to your Coinloan crypto wallet you can then apply for these funds to be withdrawn from the platform altogether. These withdrawals are normally completed swiftly. In our tests they were completed in under an hour.

Fiat withdrawals from Coinloan are processed during business hours only and may take up to 24 hours to be processed. From the time of processing it could take up to 3 further business days for the funds to clear the banking system and arrive in your bank account.

Minimum withdrawal amounts apply, which are around $50 USD for most cryptocurrencies, 10 EUR for SEPA fiat transfers and 5,000 EUR for fiat swift transfers. There is also a maximum daily withdrawal limit of $5k USD for all currencies.

AQRU stores its uninvested crypto with a third party custodian, Fireblocks, which ensures that these funds are well protected against loss due to hacking and fraud. In addition AQRU has insurance of $30 million against crypto losses.

AQRU has implemented two factor authentication within it's app to increase security levels.

What remains unclear is AQRU's investment strategy that is uses to generate yield. AQRU launched with market leading interest rates on its savings accounts which suggests that a higher level of risk was being taken with its internal investment strategy. Having said this, AQRU has now significantly reduced its savings rates and AQRU has never frozen withdrawls or suffered any outage or loss of customer funds.

AQRU have stated that they lend funds to institutions in return for yield. AQRU states that they usually demand collateralisation on thse loans. The level of collateralisation is not stated, and it is concerning if some of their loans are not fully collateralised. Ideally they would be requiring well over 100% over-collateralisation on all loans so that in all circumstances AQRU holds sufficient assets to repay the loan in the event of a default by the borrower.

AQRU offers a blended stablecoin investment product. This product invests in USDC, DAI and some other stablecoins which are not stated. Diversifying the fund across a number of stablecoins reduces risk, but the lack of full transparancy means there could be some high risk coins included.

AQRU offers enhanced savings ratings on USDC deposits when locked up for a 90 day term. This is through a deal with Maple Finance. AQRU provide a detailed run down of this deal here. The article discusses Maple Finance's risk management strategy, including the diversification and overcollateralisation of loans made by Maple. However, the managed underwriting of some loans is also discussed, which presumably adjusts collateral requirements depending on the credit status of the borrower. There is a separate fund that can be called upon in the case of borrower defaults. Overall AQRU and Maple are offering a good level of transparency on how their lending strategy works. However in the event of large number of depositors making withdrawal requests, it is possible that liquidity could still be an issue.

Some crypto platforms can provide proof of reserves prepared by a third party. This proof of reserves proves that the platform holds more assets than customer liabilities. AQRU does not currently provide proof of reserves, but hopefully this is something that they will look to implement in the future.

Overall, AQRU is a young platform backed by a solid, experienced team. They have a simple model and appear to be aiming for transparency. As the platform continues to grow we expect further reasurances on their investment strategy will be provided.

On the technical security front, Coinloan employs the usual two factor authentication 2FA approach to account security, which makes accessing an individual account extremely difficult without also being in possession of the 2FA device. In addition to this, Coinloan have employed Blaze to undertake a third party security audit of Coinloan to check for potential vulnerabilities. Blaze were "very impressed with CoinLoan’s initial security standards", and have proposed further enhancements to the security of the platform. Coinloan do appear to be committed to maintaining a high level of technical security on their platform.

Coinloan adopt a conservative, risk adverse strategy to investing funds in order to generate yield. They state that they adopt market neutral investment strategies that do not depend on the overall price trend of the market. Such strategies would include arbitrage and spread trading. Such strategies are good news for depositors as it makes the platform less susceptible to liquidity issues, when a platform can be unable to repay to depositors because too much money is tied up in loans.

Coinloan categorically state that they do not invest in DeFi protocols as they see them as too risky and all loans are fully collateralised. This collateral can be used to repay the loan in the event of a default by the borrower. They also state they avoid futures orders and other financial products that may lead to margin calls or position liquidation.

Some crypto platforms have employed third party auditors to verify their financial reserves. This proof of reserves provides reassurance to the depositors that funds are available if they need to make a withdrawal. Coinloan do not currently provide proof of reserves.

Coinloan have provided further details on their investment strategy in a detailed blog post. The transparency displayed is reassuring.