Web-based YIELD App looks to tackle DeFi's 'inherent complexity'

Retail trading platform YIELD App has launched a beta version of its web platform, giving retail traders direct access to the fast-moving DeFi market. 

The new platform, which is designed to simply DeFi access for the masses, registered 2,000 early users and collected $3 million during its private beta phase. Its investors include BnkToTheFuture, Alphabit Fund, Digital Strategies, PALCapital, Yeoman’s Capital, and Chronos VC in a hybrid fund.

The platform enables direct investment in YIELD App’s DeFi Alpha Fund I, which reportedly provides up to 20% APY through interest on stablecoins and token holdings. App users can deposit and withdraw stablecoins USDT and USDC, as well as the native YLD token.

Tim Frost, CEO and co-founder of YIELD App, said his product will help investors diversify into DeFi at a time of heightened uncertainty in the global economy due to Covid-19.

“Central bank policy since 2008 has created negative interest rates in Europe that have left cash-savers making negative real returns,” he said. “Decentralized finance typically provides higher returns than traditional financial investments, but the inherent risk and complexity of the ecosystem has prevented even the savviest users from participating.”

In addition to its “inherent complexity,” DeFi’s other big impediment is an overreliance on Ethereum (ETH), the platform on which most decentralized finance protocols are built. Frost tells Cointelegraph:

“The fees to move assets through the ETH blockchain are just able to go so insanely high that can make any transaction worthless. As a company we batch transact thousands of investors into sophisticated strategies and limit the number of individual transactions and pass the savings on to our clients.”

DeFi was one of the most remarkable crypto growth stories of 2020, but participation in the market was largely confined to early adopters and tech-savvy cryptocurrency traders. YIELD App has been designed to bridge the gap between DeFi and traditional retail investors by offering high-return savings accounts, interest-bearing checking accounts and debit cards.

More than $54 billion has been locked into DeFi protocols at the time of writing, with lending, payments and derivatives platforms seeing a large uptake.

Frost believes that high interest-bearing accounts relative to traditional savings accounts remain one of the biggest adoption drivers for DeFi in the immediate term. “When people do realize the incredible power DeFi has, I believe the choice will be made fast,” he said.