Compare Ledn vs Nexo

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.

Nexo does not use separate savings wallets, so all crypto deposits immediately start earning interest. This means that when you need to make a withdrawl there is no need first transfer funds our of your savings account before then withdrawing them from the platform. This can be a significant time saving compared to other platforms.

In our tests, withdrawls from the Nexo platform were very smooth. The process is automated, so a withdrawl request is processed by Nexo within minutes of you making it. The total withdrawl time then just depends on the network speed. Typically most withdrawls in our tests were completed in well under an hour.

Nexo has never frozen withdrawls on any of its currencies and it claims to hold sufficient liquid funds at any point in time to handle anticpiated requests.

Withdrawls attract no fees for your first few withdrawls. This means that Nexo will pay the network transaction fee on your behalf. After the first couple of free withdrawls every month you will then have to start paying this fee. Nexo does not charge any additional withdrawl fees on top of the network fee. Your number of free withdrawls increases with your Nexo loyalty level.

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.

Nexo has contracted with Armanino, a top 20 US accounting firm, to independently audit Nexo's assets and customer liabilities and to verify that these assets are greater than the liabilities. This verification can be checked live on Armanino's website.

Nexo has £775m of insurance on custodial assets, spread across a number of custodians including BitGo, Ledger Vault, Bakkt and others.

Nexo claims to insist on overcollateralisation on all loans that it makes, even to the biggest borrowers. This means that Nexo should always hold assets great then a borrower's debt, so the debt could be paid off in full by using the collateral at any time.

Nexo has contracted with Armanino, a top 20 US accounting firm, to independently audit Nexo's assets and customer liabilities and to verify that these assets are greater than the liabilities. This verification can be checked live on Armanino's website.

Nexo has £775m of insurance on custodial assets, spread across a number of custodians including BitGo, Ledger Vault, Bakkt and others.

Nexo claims to insist on overcollateralisation on all loans that it makes, even to the biggest borrowers. This means that Nexo should always hold assets great then a borrower's debt, so the debt could be paid off in full by using the collateral at any time.

Nexo states that its investment strategy is market neutral, i.e. it is not speculating on the potential increase in certain assets. Overall Nexo appears to have one of the most prudent financial risk management strategies out there and they have an impecable track record having never suffered any hack or ever frozen withdrawls. There does however always remain some risk with any crypto based business, such as a severe lack of liquidity in the markets of the loan collateral held.