The Kraken crypto platform offers customers an easier way to earn returns on their bitcoins. stakes without selling or actively managing assets through decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
The Bitcoin Vault product within Kraken Earn allows users to earn bitcoin-denominated rewards while maintaining exposure to the BTC price. 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 operated by Sentora, with customer assets allocated across established on-chain lending and yield protocols including Aave, Morpho and Tydro.
“Many bitcoin holders on Kraken have made it clear that they want simple and secure ways to earn with the bitcoins they already plan to hold,” John Zettler, general manager of Payward Services and director of Kraken Earn Products, said in the statement. “Bitcoin Vault is designed for that mindset,” he added.
The structure aims to abstract away much of the operational complexity typically associated with participating in DeFi, allowing customers to access yield opportunities directly through their Kraken accounts.
In crypto, vaults are pooled investment products that automatically deploy users’ assets into DeFi protocols to generate yield. Instead of requiring users to manually move funds between lending, staking, or liquidity platforms, they bundle those strategies into a single product, often with automated risk management and rebalancing.
Cryptocurrency exchanges and DeFi companies have increasingly launched vault products as demand grows for passive yield opportunities tied to long-term holdings like bitcoin and ether.
Bitcoin Vault marks the latest step in Kraken’s broader push into on-chain financial products as exchanges compete to attract users seeking yield-generating strategies beyond spot trading. While centralized crypto lending products largely collapsed during the 2022 market downturn, exchanges and DeFi platforms have increasingly repositioned yield products around transparent on-chain infrastructure and overcollateralized lending markets.
Kraken said the product is designed to appeal to both existing customers and off-platform bitcoin holders who may be looking to consolidate assets with a large exchange while generating additional yield. The company added that the addition to Bitcoin Vault integrates directly into the Kraken and Krak applications.
The company’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
