Earn Interest with Cryptocurrency: LedgerX Launches BTC Savings Account

CFTC-regulated cryptocurrency platform LedgerX is hoping to lure bitcoin investors, onboard more clients by launching a savings account with a premium interest rate.

The amount of interest paid on savings accounts will vary by several parameters, which the client can tweak to potentially receive a premium in US dollars on his Bitcoin holding.

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However, LedgerX’s Bitcoin savings account doesn’t work like normal banking accounts. Since (most) cryptocurrencies are decentralized and largely pseudo-anonymous, the concept of a savings account in the traditional sense doesn’t align with the objectives of what Bitcoin is all about.

Instead, the investor deposits a freely chosen amount of Bitcoin to their savings account and starts earning interest through an options technique named “call overwrite.” The paid interest will depend on several choices the user can submit to the LedgerX’s engine that is already powering the saving product.

The new savings account is ideal for less sophisticated Bitcoin bulls who already think that the price of BTC will increase. Thus, with LedgerX’s new product they will deposit Bitcoin and then sell a call option at a slightly longer date and with a higher strike call option.

The investing technique allows investors to select the required implied rate they want to earn and the amount of invested Bitcoins. After that, the user submits his choices to LedgerX matching engine that operates their crypto options vehicles.

Savings accounts are a natural evolution for LedgerX after the startup secured last year approval by CFTC to both trade and clear Bitcoin options.

LedgerX’s new account lines up all received both a CFTC derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license and a swap execution facility (SEF) license.

“The options contracts will initially be offered for transactions over a three-month duration and a six-month duration, and LedgerX is charging a transaction fee for each service,” Juthica Chou, COO at LedgerX told Forbes.

LedgerX made headlines last year after the CFTC issued an order of registration to the New York-based Bitcoin swap exchange, granting it registration status as a Swap Execution Facility (SEF).

LedgerX aims to become a regulated facility where physically-settled options on Bitcoin can be listed and cleared. Many in the crypto industry voiced their support, citing the potential benefits of hedging against market risk and the ability to gain insight into market sentiment and volatility.