Why this index exists
The crypto lending market lacks a single source for current borrow rates that is dated, sourced, and human-reviewed. Most third-party aggregators republish each other's numbers without verification dates; many platform marketing pages bury conditions and tier structures. This index is our attempt to fix that — for the platforms we cover, every published figure has a verification date, a named reviewer, and a link to its primary source.
We treat this as a research output, not a marketing page. If a number is stale, we'd rather flag it than hide it. If a methodology choice is debatable, we'd rather show our reasoning than pick one and stay quiet.
Where each rate comes from
The index draws from two distinct kinds of sources, depending on platform type.
CeFi platforms (Ledn, Nexo, CoinRabbit, Unchained Capital, YouHodler)
For centralized lenders, rates are taken from each platform's public rate page or borrow product page — never from a third-party aggregator and never from scraping behind a login. The verification process is manual:
- Visit the platform's public rate or borrow page.
- Confirm the headline APR range against what's currently displayed (or against the platform's published rate schedule).
- Record the lowest published APR and the highest published APR within the range.
- Record the maximum advertised LTV, with a note in the relevant provider page if it's tier-conditional (e.g., Nexo's tiered structure based on NEXO token holdings).
- Update the verification date in the underlying data file and commit.
We choose the manual approach over scraping for two reasons. First, the marketing pages we draw from are deliberately structured for readers, not parsers — APRs are tiered, conditional, footnoted, and frequently revised in ways an automated scraper would either miss or misrepresent. Second, every CeFi platform's terms of service prohibit automated scraping outside their published APIs, and we don't accept that legal exposure for a public asset. The editorial layer is a feature, not a workaround.
DeFi protocols (Aave, Compound, MakerDAO/Sky)
For decentralized protocols, rates are taken from the protocol's own dashboard or — for v0 of this index — from the same provider data file that powers our review pages, which is reviewed against each protocol's dashboard before commits. In a future iteration, the DeFi rows will be populated automatically at build time from on-chain data via the DefiLlama public API, so the figures are no more than seven days stale (refreshing weekly with the rest of the site).
DeFi rates are intrinsically variable — they shift with on-chain utilization in real time. The figures shown here are the typical observed range as of the verification date. For an instantaneous quote, follow the source link to each protocol's own dashboard.
Refresh cadence
CeFi rows are reviewed every Monday by Fredric Maylander. The verification typically takes 15 minutes for the five platforms. Each platform's row is updated independently — if one has changed, only its date and figures move. If none have changed, the dates still advance to record that the verification happened.
The full site is rebuilt on every push and on a scheduled cron each Monday at 12:00 Europe/Prague. DeFi rows pulled from on-chain data refresh at build time; CeFi rows reflect the most recent manual review committed to the underlying data file.
Stale flagging
Any row whose verification date is older than 14 days is automatically flagged as stale on the index page and rendered with reduced opacity. This is the honest signal we'd rather show than hide: if the maintenance cadence has slipped, readers see it immediately and treat the figure accordingly. The page header also surfaces a count of stale rows when any are present.
Stale rows are still shown — they're not removed. A stale rate is more useful than no rate, provided it's labeled.
Known limitations
- Headline ranges, not personalized quotes. APR ranges shown reflect the public lowest-to-highest range as advertised. A borrower's actual rate depends on collateral asset, LTV chosen, jurisdiction, and (for some platforms) token-tier holdings.
- Single LTV figure per provider. We show the highest advertised LTV. Several platforms offer LTVs lower than the maximum at lower-risk tiers; our individual provider review pages cover the full ladder.
- DeFi rates are point-in-time. Aave, Compound, and Sky borrow rates can change every block. The figures shown represent the range we observed on the verification date, not a prediction.
- Coverage is the platforms we review. The index does not aim to be exhaustive; we cover platforms that meet our review criteria (active, transparent enough to assess, available to a meaningful borrower base). Adding a platform requires a full review pass first.
- No third-party rate aggregators in the source chain. We deliberately do not republish data from competing comparison sites or aggregator APIs. Every figure is sourced directly from the platform or the on-chain protocol.
How to cite this index
If you reference numbers from the Rate Index in your own writing, please include the verification date for the row you're quoting and a link back to /research/rates/. Example phrasing:
"As of May 3, 2026, Aave's borrow APR ranged from 2–15% (BCL Rate Index, bestcryptoloans.org/research/rates)."
The verification date matters because rates move. A citation without a date implies the figure is current; explicitly dating it makes the claim verifiable.
Corrections
If you spot an incorrect or stale figure, email hello@bestcryptoloans.org. We respond to corrections faster than to anything else — a wrong figure on a rate index undermines the entire purpose of the page, so we treat it as the highest-priority editorial issue.
Material corrections will be noted in the rate index's commit history and, eventually, in a public changelog at /research/rates/.