TL;DR
Krak BTC Vaults let Bitcoin holders earn up to 2.5% variable APY in BTC automatically, with no lock-ups, no minimum deposit, and full price exposure preserved.
Vaults now span both sides of a portfolio: USDC Vaults for yield on stability (up to 8% APY) and BTC Vaults for yield on conviction, built on the same infrastructure already holding over $180 million across 38,000 users.
BTC Vaults close a three-stage Bitcoin flywheel unique to Krak: earn BTC on every purchase via 2% card cashback, earn BTC on every payday via 1% Salary Match, then let that BTC compound inside a Vault.
Available now in the US (excluding NY and ME), EEA, and Canada, with deposits accruing immediately and withdrawals accessible after a 5-day lockup.
Most people with money in the market understand the basic idea of making your assets work for you. You don’t let cash sit idle in a checking account earning nothing when a high-yield savings account exists. You don’t leave equity uninvested when index funds are a few taps away. You put capital where it compounds.
That logic has always applied cleanly to one side of your portfolio. Until now, it had a blind spot: Bitcoin.
Two assets. Two kinds of wealth building.
Krak Vaults launched with a clear premise: your money should earn while you hold it. For users putting digital dollars to work, that meant USDC, a stablecoin earning up to 8% (variable) APY automatically. No active management, no lock-ups, no complexity. Deposit, earn, withdraw.
Before going further, a quick note on the two assets in play here, because they serve meaningfully different purposes in a portfolio.
USDC is a stablecoin: a digital dollar. Its value is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, which means it doesn’t fluctuate with the crypto market. It’s designed for more control and stability. When you earn yield on USDC, you’re earning on something that behaves like cash: more predictable, uncorrelated to extreme volatility of crypto market cycles, and liquid. For the portion of your portfolio where you want yield without extreme volatility, USDC delivers.
Bitcoin is a different kind of asset entirely. It’s not pegged to anything. It appreciates (and depreciates) based on supply, demand, adoption, and macro conditions. Investors hold Bitcoin for the same reason they hold equity in high-growth companies: conviction in long-term appreciation. Bitcoin has been one of the best-performing assets of the last decade. It’s volatile, yes, but that volatility has historically skewed upward for patient holders.
The Vaults product now serves both types of conviction. USDC Vaults give you yield on stability. BTC Vaults give you yield on conviction. Together, they represent a yield layer across two fundamentally different kinds of wealth building.
Introducing BTC Vaults
Today, Krak is launching BTC Vaults, a yield strategy for Bitcoin holders who want their asset doing more without changing their exposure to it.
Here’s what that means in practice: you deposit Bitcoin into a Vault, and it begins accruing rewards automatically in Bitcoin at up to 2.5% APY. Your BTC balance grows. You remain fully exposed to every price move, up or down. You haven’t sold, hedged, or changed your position. You’ve simply added a yield layer on top of the conviction you already had.
When Bitcoin moves 20% in a quarter, you participate in that move entirely. The yield is additive, not a trade-off.
How it works
The experience is designed to be frictionless, intentionally. There’s no wallet to manage, no minimum balance to meet.
- Open the Krak app and navigate to Vaults from the home screen.
- Select BTC Vault alongside the existing Balanced, Boosted, and Advanced USDC strategies.1
- Deposit any amount or any asset. No minimum. Krak converts automatically to BTC.
- Earnings compound in Bitcoin automatically. No check-ins, no rebalancing, no decisions required. Rewards start accruing immediately.
- Withdraw anytime. Funds are accessible after a 5-day lockup period.
That’s it. The product doesn’t ask you to become a crypto expert. It asks you to make one decision: let your Bitcoin earn while you hold it.
The numbers that matter
Over $180 million is already earning inside Vaults across 38,000 users globally. That base was built on USDC. BTC Vaults extend the same infrastructure to the most widely held asset in crypto.
For context on what the yield means over time: a $10,000 BTC Vault deposit earning ~2.5% variable APY can compound to roughly $10,250 after year one, all in Bitcoin.
The flywheel: a system no other fintech has built
BTC Vaults don’t exist in isolation. For Krak users in eligible markets, they’re the third piece of a closed-loop system designed to accumulate Bitcoin passively, without ever requiring a deliberate purchase.
Here’s how the loop works:
Stage 1: Earn BTC on every purchase. The Krak Card pays up to 2% cashback,2 optionally in Bitcoin. Every time you spend, a fraction of it converts automatically to BTC and hits your balance.
Stage 2: Earn BTC on every payday. Krak’s Salary Match feature offers a 1% match on your payroll, optionally in Bitcoin. Every pay cycle, your BTC position grows without any action on your part.
Stage 3: Let that BTC earn yield. BTC Vaults close the loop. The Bitcoin you’ve been accumulating through spending and salary now earns up to 2.5% (variable) APY on top of itself.
The math, concretely:
A Krak user spending €2,000/month on their card and earning €5,000/month in salary, taking both in BTC rewards, accumulates roughly €1,095 in Bitcoin per year without buying a single sat outright.
Add three years of compounding:
- Year 1: ~ €1,095 earned in BTC
- Year 2: ~ €1,122 earned in BTC
- Year 3: ~ €1,151 earned in BTC
Over the course of three years, that could be up to ~ €3,368 in Bitcoin. Built from spending and paydays.
No other consumer fintech has connected these three mechanisms into a single system. Revolut has crypto but offers no BTC yield. Cash App lets you buy Bitcoin but it earns nothing. Chime and SoFi don’t touch crypto at all. Krak is the only app where your everyday money turns into Bitcoin, and your Bitcoin turns into more Bitcoin.
For the long-term holder
If you’ve held Bitcoin through multiple cycles, you already know the core thesis: patience, conviction, and time in the market. You haven’t been trading. You’ve been accumulating.
BTC Vaults are designed for exactly that posture. You don’t need to change anything about your strategy. You don’t need to learn a new protocol or accept new risk. You’re simply adding yield to a position you were going to hold anyway.
Get started
BTC Vaults are available now in the Krak app for users in the US (excluding NY and ME), EEA, and Canada. No minimum deposit. Withdraw anytime.
If you already hold Bitcoin on Krak, you’re one tap away from putting it to work.
¹ Withdrawal timing depends on selected strategy and network conditions. Geo restrictions apply. See this Support Center Article for more information on Krak Vaults.
2 Rate depends on average assets held with Krak, Kraken and Kraken Pro. Geo restrictions and T&Cs apply. See Support Center for more info.
APY is variable and not guaranteed; there is a risk of loss. Onchain interactions involve technological, market, and operational risks (see Terms of Service). Kraken does not control third-party protocols. Vaults are an unregulated product and are provided by Payward Wallet, LLC. Fees apply. Geo restrictions apply.
_A variable spread will apply when spending across assets. Third-party ATM fees may apply.
Spending crypto may be a taxable event, as conversion to fiat can create capital gains or losses. Consult a tax advisor for your individual circumstances._ Learn more. Cashback is generally not taxable. Consult a tax advisor for your circumstances. Learn more_.
Mastercard® is a registered trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. The card is issued by Monavate pursuant to license by Mastercard International Inc.
Features are subject to change. Some features, applications, and services may not be available in all regions or all languages and may require specific hardware and software. For more information, see_ Feature Availability.
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