• Average rating of 80% based on 143 reviews.
• Founded 1 year ago in 2021.
• Headquartered in the United Kingdom.
• Bitcoin (BTC) savings rates up to 1% APY.
• Average rating of 80% based on 143 reviews.
• Founded 1 year ago in 2021.
• Headquartered in the United Kingdom.
• Bitcoin (BTC) savings rates up to 1% APY.
AQRU Review, Pros & Cons and Features
DeFinda Score™
| Savings Rates | |
| Loan Rates | |
| Established | |
| Reviews | |
| Risk Management | |
| Withdrawals | |
| Coverage | |
| Support |
AQRU is a relatively new British backed crypto platform that offers crypto savings accounts and crypto exchange. The platform launched in December 2021 with a number of market leading savings rates on bitcoin and stablecoins. AQRU is led by a strong British management team with significant experience in fintech and mainstream asset management. Whilst the platform is managed by a British team the AQRU platform is operated through a wholly owned subsidiary based in Bulgaria.
The platform currently only offers crypto savings accounts. Crypto-backed loans are not currently available to regular users, although AQRU does grant loans at an institutional level as part of its yield generation model. Crypto savings accounts offer interest rates up to 8% APY. Interest is accrued every second and paid out daily.
AQRU currently applies one flat savings rates to your entire investment balance. Many other platforms have implemented tiered rates, with high headline rates for very low balances, which then reduce as your balance size increases.
AQRU also offers exchange services, both crypto to crypto, and crypto to/from fiat (GBP and EUR only). The exchange service is simple to use and has transparent pricing of 0.35% commission and no other charges.
AQRU supports a very limited number of crypto and fiat currencies at this stage, but the range of available options continues to expand.
Some of the images used on the AQRU platform are a bit off-putting. These include pictures of people grabbing wads of money. These images have a bit of a "get rich quick" feel about them, which is disappointing as the platform itself seems to be well designed and backed by a strong team.
You can use AQRU to start your crypto journey by simply transferring regular fiat currency (GBP or EUR) to your AQRU account and then using those funds to purchase your first crypto.
Overall we like AQRU and look forward to seeing them continue to grow. We hope they will be able raise their savings rates back up to competitive levels soon.
Pros
Simple, easy to use interface.
Competitive exchange rates.
Competitive interest rates for large deposits.
Clear ownership structure and regulatory status.
Run by strong, professional team.
No tiered savings rates. Rate applies to entire balance.
Unique AQRU Trend investment product
AQRU Ten makes it easy to diversify your crypto portfolio
Cons
High $20 fee for crypto withdrawls.
Limited number of coins supported.
Loans not available.
Need to manually fund savings accounts rather all deposits automatically earning interest.
DeFinda Score™
Savings Rates
Loan Rates
Established
AQRU was founded in 2021 which makes it 1 year old. That's very young for a crypto business. The oldest crypto platforms are 11 years old. Whilst many young crypto businesses are highly innovative and are bringing great value to the sector, their relative experience is limited and they will not have ridden out as many of the crypto highs and lows that more experienced platforms have.
AQRU has a total of approximately 50 million USD of assets under management. AQRU is one of the smaller crypto platforms measured by assets held. The biggest crypto platforms are managing up to 21 billion USD of assets.
Reviews
AQRU has an average expert rating of 79%, and an average user rating of 80% based on 137 user reviews. AQRU has over 100 reviews on Trustpilot, with an average user rating of 80%. Expert reviews include Finder.com (80%), Captain Altcoin (79%), Inside Bitcoins (92%) and Bit Compare (80%).
Risk Management
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.
Withdrawals
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.
Coverage
AQRU supports 5 different cryptocurrencies and 2 fiat currencies. Key supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, USD Coin and Dai. AQRU support for fiat currencies includes Pounds Sterling and Euros. The biggest crypto platforms offer support for over 250 different cryptocurrencies.
Support for a larger number of cryptocurrencies is helpful if you are looking for trading opportunities, but may be less important if your priority is long term investment in one of the major cryptos.
Support
AQRU offers support by email and online chat, however they do not offer support by phone and do not offer 24 hour support.
How to Get Started With AQRU
AQRU can be accessed by either a phone app (iPhone and Android) or directly via their website.
The signup process is relatively painless, although you will need to complete various Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.
Once you are signed up, the AQRU platform is simple and easy to understand. You can transfer your cryptocurrency directly to a crypto wallet within the app. You can also fund your fiat wallet either by bank transfer or by using a debit or credit card. It should be noted that AQRU has a minimum deposit size of $100 USD.
For crypto deposits onto the platform, AQRU aim to notify you within 20 minutes of receipt of the funds. In our tests we found that crypto deposits where recognised by AQRU quickly without any issues.
The time taking for fiat deposits to be credited on to the platform depends primarily on the bank that you are sending from. Many banks undertake additional checks on funds transferred to crypto platforms and this can delay the transfer process. If you do experience a delay then remain calm and contact your bank to see if the transfer is currently going through any internal fraud checks.
Once you have funds on the platform you can then choose to invest those funds into a savings product, or to exchange them for a different currency.
AQRU Reviews
As a relatively new crypto platform, there are still only a limited number of reviews for AQRU. Nonetheless, we did find over 100 user reviews and a number of expert reviews for the platform.
Amongst the user reviews, people liked how easy to use the app is and also felt that customer service was very responsive.
However, a number of users were not impressed by the sudden drop in savings rates when the bitcoin savings rate was dropped from 7% to 1% overnight.
The vast majority of users have had a positive experience on AQRU, but some have encountered a less smooth process mainly due to regulatory obligations. Some users have faced additional questions about the source of funds before deposits have been accepted on the platform. Others have faced similar questions when making withdrawls from the platform.
Based on a total of 143 reviews across the web for AQRU we gave the platform an overall rating of 80%.
| Overall User Rating |
|
137 reviews 137 |
| Trustpilot |
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136 reviews 136 |
| iphone App |
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1 review 1 |
| Android App |
| Overall Expert Rating |
|
6 reviews 6 |
| Inside Bitcoins |
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| Cryptoholics |
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| Finder.com |
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| Bit Compare |
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| Captain Altcoin |
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| Spend Me Not |
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| Tech Bullion | ||
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AQRU YouTube Reviews
AQRU Promo Codes & Vouchers
$100 USDC Free
AQRU Savings Accounts
- Earn up to 8% APY
- Interest paid out daily
- Withdraw your money at any time
- Earn higher rates on 90 day fixed term accounts
- Manual transfer in and out of savings products
AQRU launched with a small selection of highly competitive savings rates. Following the crypto crash of spring 2022, these rates were severely slashed to much lower levels. Whilst this was very likely a sensible move by AQRU to prevent the platform from running into liquidity problems, it does mean that their savings rates are significantly less competitive than they used to be.
The majority of AQRU's savings products are offered on an instant access basis, although they have started to offer higher yielding fixed term savings accounts. These fixed term accounts normally require you to lock up your money for 90 days.
To start earning interest you have to manually invest money from your AQRU crypto wallet into one of their savings products. Similarly to withdraw your crypto you must first transfer it out of the savings product and then withdraw it from your wallet.
Once you have invested in a savings product the AQRU dashboard will show the interest you are earning every second. Interest is then paid out on the same currency as you deposited in every day.
AQRU offers a stablecoin savings product. This product is a blended savings product, which invests across a number of different stablecoins. The exact split and assets involved is not clear.
To withdraw money from your savings account you simply move it back to your AQRU wallet from your AQRU savings product. When you withdraw you can choose which currency you want to withdraw in. For example you could have invested ETH into a BTC savings product, but then when withdrawing from that product you withdraw back in USDC. The savings accounts are effectively investment products that you can buy and sell with any of the supported currencies.
It is important to note that withdrawals from the platform itself are not instant. Once your withdraw from a savings product to your AQRU wallet, you can then request to withdraw your funds from the platform altogether. These requests are processed at 2pm UTC every day. In our experience withdrawls are completed between 2pm and 3pm UTC. This means that depending on when you make the request you may have to wait 24 hours before your crypto is fully removed from the platform.
You can calculate your potential earnings on AQRU using our AQRU interest rate calculator.
AQRU Mobile Apps
AQRU offers mobile apps for both iPhone and Android. The app is well designed and easy to use. One slight quirk is that AQRU sometimes uses security codes which are texted to your phone and sometimes uses codes generated by your 2 factor authorisation app. This can sometimes be confusing.
Overall the Mobile app is one of the easiest ways to use the AQRU platform.
AQRU Exchange
AQRU offers a built-in exchange across its supported currencies. This allows crypto to crypto exchange and crypto to/from fiat exchange.
AQRU passes through the exchange rate provided by its institutional partners and then adds a flat fee of 0.35%. There are no other hidden fees.
The exchange is very easy to use and transactions are completed very quickly.
AQRU Trend
In July 2022, AQRU launched a new managed crypto investment product called AQRU Trend. It is effectively a managed portfolio of crypto assets. This product aims to outperform the crypto market by taking risk when market momentum is upwards and reducing risk when the market starts to fall.
When you invest in AQRU Trend you agree that AQRU can buy and sell cryptocurrencies using your funds. The product is focused on the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap (excluding stablecoins). AQRU uses its own proprietary algorithm to determine how the funds should be allocated across the portfolio. That allocation is rebalanced on a weekly basis.
As the market rises AQRU will look to capture the price gain by investing in the basket of cryptos. As the market falls AQRU will look to withdraw funds back to USDC stablecoin to reduce exposure to the market downside. When your funds are not actively invested and have been returned to stablecoins you will earn a 3% yield on the stablecoin amount.
The product has a minimum investment amount of 500 USDC and attracts a management fee of 0.35% when you put money into the fund and another 0.35% when you withdraw.
AQRU claim that their Trend product has outperformed a pure Bitcoin investment over the last 2 years. This is based on back testing their algorithm against the historic market data rather than actually deploying the algorithm over this period. An algorithm that performed well over the last 2 years will not necessarily perform as well over the next 2 years.
AQRU Ten
AQRU is another interesting investment product launched by the AQRU team. This porduct allows you to quickly invest in a diversified portfolio of the top ten cryptocurrencies by marketcap, excluding stablecoins.
The product tracks the top 10 cryptocurrencies and allocates funds to each coin according to their marketcap. For example the allocation of funds on 26 July 2022 was:
Every week the portfolio is rebalanced according to movements in the marketcap.
The product offers an easy way to diversify your portfolio, and AQRU claim that this portfolio has outperformed just owning Bitcoin since Jan 2020.
A fee of 0.35% is charged when you buy into the fund, and an exit fee of 0.35% is also charged when you exit the fund. There are no other fees associated with the product.
Security & Risk
- $30m insurance
- 2 factor authentication
- Crypto stored with a third party custodian, Fireblocks
- No proof of reserves
AQRU is still a relatively young crypto platform, so their security position is more modest than on some of the more established platforms.
Crypto deposits are stored with a third party custodian, Fireblocks. This ensures a high level of security is applied to retained crypto funds. This custodian will be used to store user deposits that are not currently utilised, however AQRU will lend out a proportion of client deposits as part of its yield generation model.
In addition AQRU has $30 million of insurance cover against losses on the platform.
Security within the AQRU app is ensured by 2 factor authentication. This means that the AQRU app will ask you for a code from your 2FA app or sent to you by text message before you can login or proceed with certain key actions.
Regarding financial security and risk, AQRU's investment strategy is very vague. They state that they lend assets to institutions, although there is no mention of the level collateralisation of these loans. Collateralisation is very important as it ensures that the loan can be repaid in full if the borrower defaults. AQRU does invest in DeFi protocols, most likely including liquidity pools. They state that all funds invested in a liquidity pool are fully insured.
AQRU provides no proof of reserves. Proof of reserves is typically an audit by a third party that then attests that the platform really does hold the assets that it says it does and that these assets exceed the value of customers liabilities (deposits). As a young platform it is not surprising that proof of reserves has not yet been implemented. Hopefully this is something AQRU will implement in due course.
AQRU Fees & Limits
| Exchange fees | 0.35% flat rate |
| Fiat deposit fee |
Free
|
| Fiat withdrawal fee |
Free
|
| Crypto deposit fee |
Free
|
| Crypto withdrawal fee | $10 for bitcoin and $20 for other cryptos |
Supported Currencies
AQRU supports over 7 currencies including Pounds Sterling, Euros, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
AQRU Countries
AQRU accepts customers from all over the world, however please note that they only accept fiat deposits and withdrawls in either UK Pounds Sterling (GBP) or Euros (EUR).
AQRU's supports the following languages: English.
AQRU's services are available in all countries EXCEPT:
AQRU Key Data
| Legal name | AQRU Plc |
| Year founded | 2,021 |
| Country incorporated in | Bulgaria |
| Headquarters country | United Kingdom |
| Decentralised |
Yes
|
| Total assets under management | $50,000,000USD |
| Withdrawal time in hours | 24hours |
| Savings accounts |
Yes
|
| Loans |
No
|
| Crypto to crypto exchange |
Yes
|
| Fiat to crypto exchange |
Yes
|
| Pro exchange marketplace |
No
|
| Peer to peer exchange |
No
|
| Margin trading |
No
|
| Corporate accounts |
Yes
|
| Instantly buy crypto with fiat |
Yes
|
| Integrated crypto wallet |
Yes
|
| Crypto withdrawals to private wallet |
Yes
|
| Fast account verification |
Yes
|
| Futures exchange |
No
|
| Insurance level | $30,000,000USD |
| Cold storage custodian | Fireblocks |
| Two factor authentication |
Yes
|
| Loan over collateralisation percent | Over 100% over-collateralisation |
| Know your customer |
Yes
|
| Credit check |
No
|
| Regulators | Accru is registered as a Cryptoasset service provider with the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency. Accru has a pending application with the UK Financial Conduct Authority for approval as a crypto asset business |
| 24/7 support |
No
|
| Email support |
Yes
|
| Phone support |
No
|
| Chat support |
Yes
|
| Exchange fees | 0.35% flat rate |
| Fiat deposit fee | Free |
| Fiat withdrawal fee | Free |
| Crypto deposit fee | Free |
| Withdrawal process | Withdrawls are processed every day at 2pm UTC. Any withdrawl request prior to this time will have to wait until 2pm UTC before it is processed. In our experience withdrawls are completed within an hour after 2pm. |
| Withdrawal time | 24 hours |
| Crypto withdrawal fee | $10 for bitcoin and $20 for other cryptos |
| DeFi products |
Yes
|
| Independent proof of reserves |
No
|
Useful Links
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