Compare AQRU vs Ledn

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.

Ledn has a very simple model. As soon as you deposit either BTC or USDC then those deposits immediately start earning interest. There is no need to manually transfer the money to a savings account once on the Ledn platform. This means that when you need to withdraw funds, you can withdraw them directly from the savings account. Savings accounts have no lock in period and you can withdraw your funds at any time.

Withdrawals are processed manually and Ledn states that the vast majority of requests are processed within 24 hours, but that the terms of the savings account stipulate that it can take up to 7 days. In our tests, withdrawals took about 30 hours from the time of request to the funds arriving in your wallet.

Ledn does not charge any withdrawal fees on BTC, however you must pay the miner's fees associated with the withdrawal. These fees will be deducted from the amount that you withdraw. There is a minimum withdrawal amount of 0.0005 BTC. For USDC withdrawals a fee does apply which is 35 USDC.

Ledn state in their FAQ that some withdrawal requests may require a confirmatory video call with the platform.

To date Ledn has never frozen withdrawals on any of their 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.

Ledn accounts feature 2 factor authentication for key activities such as login and withdrawals. You can whitelist withdrawal addresses so that funds can only be sent to those addresses. You can also add a personal anti-phishing phrase to the site. This phrase will be included in any emails sent to you which will help you to verify that the email was sent by Ledn and not an impersonator.

Ledn state in their FAQs that assets deposited on the platform are not loaned out to borrowers and instead 100% of these deposits are stored with a third party cold storage custodian, Bitgo. However, elsewhere in their FAQs they state that they may in fact lend out these assets to a borrower and will not necessarily hold an equivalent amount of crypto as collateral. They go on to state that their primary borrower is Genesis. So we have mixed messages from Ledn about the extent to which deposits are loaned out, but in all likelihood deposits are loaned out as this is how they generate a return to pass on to you.

One unique feature of Ledn is that you can verify that your deposit really does exist in Ledn's accounts. This is done by way of a an attestation by Armanino LLP, a top tier accountancy firm. The Ledn web app provides a link to the Armanino asset verification page. Here you can enter a unique hash associated with your account which then reveals Armanino audit of your personal assets. The ability to verify personal individual assets in this way is quite unique and very reassuring. Other platforms that have implemented proof of reserves systems normally show that the total assets of the company exceed total customer liabilities, but there is no way to verify your individual assets.