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Best way to earn interest on crypto, by the asset you hold

"Interest on crypto" means four different things depending on what you hold. On ETH and SOL it usually means staking. On BTC it usually means lending, because Bitcoin has no native yield. On stablecoins it means lending, savings rates, or a hedged trade paid by traders. Asking for the best way without saying which asset gets you a list that is mostly not for you.

This page routes by asset. For each one it names the methods that pay, who pays, and what you hold while it earns. It also separates the methods that are interest, a payment for the use of your capital, from the ones sold as interest that are something else.

Key takeaways​

  • Route by asset. BTC, ETH, SOL, and stablecoins each have a different default method and a different payer.
  • Three payers exist: networks (staking), borrowers (lending), and leveraged traders (funding). A fourth, exchange "Earn" programmes, is a wrapper around one of the three plus the exchange's balance sheet.
  • Interest on a volatile asset is a smaller number than its price move. It only counts if you were holding the asset anyway.
  • Custody is a separate decision on every row: exchange, pooled contract, wrapper, or your own wallet.

Routing table​

AssetDefault methodPayerWhere it sitsAlso possibleNot interest
BTCLending (DeFi or exchange)BorrowersPooled or exchangeWrapped BTC in DeFi lending; covered calls"BTC yield" from farm emissions
ETHNative or liquid stakingThe networkValidator or LSTLending; restakingLST points and airdrops
SOLNative or liquid stakingThe networkValidator or LSTLending; perp LP (JLP)Perp LP fee share
StablecoinsLending, savings rate, or funding captureBorrowers, a treasury, or tradersPooled, wrapper, or your walletTokenized Treasuries; fixed-yield PTsPerp LP; incentives

Bitcoin: lending, because there is nothing else​

Bitcoin has no staking and no native yield. Every "earn interest on Bitcoin" product is lending your BTC to someone, directly or through a protocol, or selling options against it.

Exchange Earn programmes lend your BTC to the exchange's borrowers and pay a rate. Custody is the exchange's; the Binance Earn and Coinbase Earn comparisons cover the model. Rates on BTC are usually low because borrowing demand is thin.

DeFi lending takes wrapped BTC (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) on Aave or Morpho and pays what borrowers pay. You add the wrapper's custodian risk to the lending risk, and the rate is again low.

Covered calls, selling call options against your BTC, pay a premium and cap your upside. It is income, and it is not interest; you are being paid to give up gains.

On Bitcoin, the interest available is small relative to the asset's moves, and the custody cost of reaching it is often not worth it. Many long-term holders decide the best interest on BTC is none.

Ethereum: staking is the default​

ETH pays its holders for securing the network. Staking directly requires 32 ETH and a validator; liquid staking through Lido, Rocket Pool, or an exchange gives you a token (stETH, rETH) that accrues the yield and can be used elsewhere.

The payer is the network, which makes staking the most structural yield in crypto. The costs are an unbonding period to exit, a small slashing risk with bad validators, and the liquid-staking token's peg, which has traded below backing during stress.

Restaking layers a second yield on top by lending your staked ETH's security to other protocols, and adds those protocols' risk. Points and airdrops attached to staking products are not interest; they are a speculative bonus.

If you hold ETH long term, liquid staking is the default. Lending ETH on Aave is the alternative when borrow demand spikes and the rate temporarily beats staking.

Solana: staking, with a trap next to it​

SOL stakes natively or through liquid-staking tokens (mSOL, jitoSOL, bSOL) that accrue yield and stay usable in DeFi. The payer is the network, the unbonding period is short by staking standards, and the default for a long-term holder is liquid staking.

The trap next to it is Jupiter's JLP, which is marketed as SOL yield and is a perpetual liquidity pool. Depositing gives you a share of a basket of SOL, ETH, BTC, and stablecoins that takes the other side of traders. The fee income is real; the basket exposure and counterparty exposure are the position. The JLP comparison explains why that is not interest.

Stablecoins: the most options and the only self-custodial one​

Stablecoins are where "interest on crypto" has the most methods and the clearest payers.

Lending on Aave or a Morpho vault pays borrower interest, pooled, with instant exit up to liquidity. It is the base rate.

Savings rates such as Sky's on USDS pay a governance-set rate from protocol revenue, in a wrapper token.

Tokenized Treasuries pay the US policy rate through a fund token, for those who meet the eligibility gate.

Funding capture pays what leveraged traders pay to hold perpetual positions, to whoever holds the hedged other side. Deploy Finance's Income: Funding Rates runs that trade from a wallet you control on Hyperliquid, with a session key that can trade and cannot withdraw. It is the one stablecoin method on this page where the funds stay individually held rather than pooled or wrapped, and it is cyclical: it pays in leverage-heavy markets and thins out when leverage leaves. It carries funding, venue, and execution risk that lending does not.

The USDC yields page ranks these by durability, and the stablecoin yields page routes by coin.

What is sold as interest and is not​

Four things appear on "earn interest" lists and are a different kind of return.

  • Farm emissions. A token printed to attract deposits. The APY is a forecast of that token's price.
  • Perp liquidity pools. HLP, JLP, and similar pay trader losses and fees to a pool that carries inventory. Trading business, not interest.
  • Points and airdrops. Speculative and unpriced until they are not.
  • Exchange "flexible earn" on volatile assets. Often a low rate for lending to the exchange's own book, with the exchange's custody.

None of these is illegitimate. They are not interest, and comparing their headline numbers to a lending rate is comparing a lottery ticket to a coupon.

Custody, on every row​

Each method above sits in one of four custody positions: on an exchange, pooled in a contract, held as a wrapper token, or in your own wallet. Staking through an exchange is exchange custody; through a liquid-staking token, a wrapper; through your own validator, your keys. Lending is pooled. Funding capture through an agent is your wallet.

The interest rate does not tell you which. Decide the custody you will accept first; the self-custody how-to is the process for checking it.

Other products named on this page​

The sections above name several products without describing them. Each entry below covers what the product is and who it suits, as of last review, in August 2026. Check each one's own documentation for current terms before depositing.

Wrapped BTC: WBTC, cbBTC, and tBTC​

Each is a token on another chain that represents BTC held elsewhere, which is what lets BTC be supplied to lending markets such as Aave or Morpho. WBTC and cbBTC are backed by BTC held by a custodian (cbBTC's is Coinbase); tBTC is minted and redeemed through a decentralized signer network instead of a single custodian. Holding any of them adds the backing model's risk to the lending risk. They suit a BTC holder who has decided lending yield is worth that extra layer.

Aave​

Aave runs pooled lending markets: you supply an asset, receive an interest-bearing aToken, and borrowers pay a variable rate that rises with utilization. Withdrawals are limited to the pool's unborrowed liquidity. It suits a holder who wants a liquid floating rate on BTC wrappers, ETH, or stablecoins; the Aave comparison covers it.

Morpho​

Morpho vaults supply a single asset into isolated lending markets chosen by a curator, within caps the curator sets, and its documentation explains how curator fees come out of borrower interest. It suits a holder who wants lending yield across a curator's selection of markets; the Morpho comparison covers it.

Lido and Rocket Pool​

Both are liquid-staking protocols for ETH. Lido issues stETH to depositors and stakes through a set of node operators; Rocket Pool issues rETH and stakes through a permissionless network of node operators. The token accrues staking rewards and can be used in DeFi, with the peg risk described above. They suit an ETH holder who wants staking yield without running a validator.

mSOL, jitoSOL, and bSOL​

These are Solana liquid-staking tokens from Marinade, Jito, and BlazeStake respectively. Each represents staked SOL, accrues staking rewards, and stays usable in Solana DeFi. They differ in validator selection and in how each distributes rewards, so compare those on each protocol's documentation. They suit a SOL holder who wants staking yield and a token they can still use.

Verdict​

BTC: lending, at low rates, or nothing. ETH and SOL: liquid staking, the most structural yield in crypto, if you were holding anyway. Stablecoins: lending for the base rate, a savings rate or Treasuries for policy-set income, or funding capture in your own wallet for a market-paid rate with a cycle.

The best way to earn interest on crypto is the method whose payer you can name, on an asset you already wanted to hold, in a custody position you chose on purpose.

Learn more​

Start with Deploy Finance​

Create a self-custodial Deploy Finance wallet and review the live agents.