Finder kills its high-yield ‘Earn’ product as cryptocurrency fever fades

Australian financial comparison platform Finder has axed its year-old cryptocurrency investment product Finder Earn, becoming the latest high-yield offering to buckle as digital asset valuations tumble from their all-time highs.

Launched during the peak of cryptocurrency market hype in November 2021, Finder Earn initially promised users an 4.01% annual return on funds channelled into the system, with rates temporarily rising as high as 6.01% for some users during bonus earning periods.

To use Finder Earn, users exchanged Australian dollars for TrueAUD (TAUD) stablecoins — digital assets pegged to the cost of fiat currency — and handed those stablecoins to Finder itself.

“In practice, you’re making loans directly to our business,” Finder Earn’s FAQ said, while noting users would be classified as unsecured creditors if Finder were to become insolvent.

With those stablecoins in hand, Finder Earn was then free to make its own investments in the largely unregulated sector.

“We intend to deploy the capital lent to us across the blockchain ecosystem in a long-term, sustainable and risk-balanced way,” the company said.

For the privilege, Finder Earn promised users compounding returns, paid in TAUD, far above what traditional banks offered at the time.

Users also had the ability for users to transfer and withdraw their holdings as Australian currency at any point.

But interest rates have risen rapidly since the launch of Finder Earn, having a profound, two-pronged impact on the service.

Global rate hikes stemmed the flow of capital keeping cryptocurrency valuations high, making it harder for investors in the space to turn a profit on speculative assets.

At the same time, interest rates on traditional savings accounts steadily grew, making Finder Earn — which offered annual returns of 4.01% in its latest iteration — less attractive to users.

Finder admitted as much in its Tuesday message to users: “To put it simply, we have determined that Earn is no longer serving our members as it did in a low-rate environment.”

TAUD held in Finder Earn accounts will automatically transfer to Finder Wallet accounts on Thursday, the company says, with users also free to withdraw their TAUD beforehand.

The service provided more than 500,000 TAUD to users over its lifespan, the company added.

With major market players in disarray testing consumer confidence, Finder says there are no current plans to revive the service, “but it’s possible that we may offer it again at some point”.