Crypto platform Kraken offers customers an easier way to earn returns on their bitcoin holdings without selling or actively managing assets across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
The Bitcoin Vault product in Kraken Earn allows users to win rewards denominated in bitcoin while maintaining exposure to the price of BTC. It is aimed at long-term holders looking for passive income opportunities tied to assets they already plan to hold over time, Kraken said in Wednesday’s press release.
The new offering is powered by DeFi infrastructure provider Veda and powered by Sentora, with client assets spread across established onchain lending and return protocols, including Aave, Morpho and Tydro.
“Many bitcoin holders on Kraken have made it clear that they want simple, secure ways to earn from the bitcoin they already plan to hold,” John Zettler, GM of Payward Services and head of Kraken Earn Products, said in the statement. “Bitcoin Vault is built for that mindset,” he added.
The structure is intended to abstract much of the operational complexity typically associated with DeFi participation, giving customers access to return opportunities directly through their Kraken accounts.
In crypto, vaults are pooled investment products that automatically deploy users’ assets across DeFi protocols to generate returns. Rather than requiring users to manually move funds between lending, staking or liquidity platforms, they package these strategies into a single product, often with automated risk management and rebalancing.
Crypto exchanges and DeFi companies have increasingly rolled out vault products as demand for passive return opportunities tied to long-term holdings like bitcoin and ether grows.
Bitcoin Vault marks the latest step in Kraken’s broader push into onchain financial products as exchanges compete to attract users seeking return-generating strategies beyond spot trading. While centralized crypto lending products largely collapsed during the 2022 market downturn, exchanges and DeFi platforms have increasingly repositioned return products around transparent onchain infrastructure and over-collateralized loan markets.
Kraken said the product is designed to appeal both to existing customers and to bitcoin holders outside the platform who may be looking to consolidate assets with a large exchange while generating additional dividends. The company added that Bitcoin Vault onboarding is integrated directly into the Kraken and Krak apps.
The firm’s broader DeFi Earn offering has surpassed $240 million in assets under management since launching in January, which it attributed to organic customer adoption rather than token incentives.
Bitcoin Vault is now available in eligible jurisdictions through Kraken Earn.
Read more: Kraken parent Payward’s Q1 revenue rises despite crypto market decline
