This morning, River announced its Bitcoin Interest on Cash feature through which it will offer a 3.8% interest rate — paid out in bitcoin — on the dollars you leave in the custody of the platform, which is FDIC insured up to $250,000.
This yield is comparable to what you’d earn in a high-yield savings account through an online bank like Ally, but again, you’re earning bitcoin with River.
If you’re like me, a Bitcoin enthusiast who still likes to keep a sizable cash buffer in case of emergency, this is a pretty sweet deal. See, I have one of those high-yield savings accounts through Ally, and I tell myself I’m going to take the yield I earn each month and buy bitcoin with it, though, I rarely remember to do this.
Now, with River, I can essentially automate that process, allowing River to convert that filthy fiat yield into bitcoin for me at the end of each month.
(Well technically, I can’t do this because I live in New York State, one of only two US states in which River doesn’t serve clients. We have this thing in New York — a land once home to free people but that is now drowning in bureaucracy — called the “BitLicense,” which makes it quite difficult for Bitcoin startups to do business in the state, but I digress.)
There are no monthly fees or minimums to get started using this product, and users can withdraw their cash whenever they please.
This isn’t just something for Bitcoiners to celebrate, but it’s also a great way to onboard normies to Bitcoin, most of whom are scared to buy bitcoin because of its volatility. Now, they don’t have to buy it; they can just earn it for holding onto the type of money they’re much more used to holding.
