Many casual crypto users have heard the promises of 5% or even 8% yields on deposits in the wild world of decentralized finance, or DeFi. But while those rates might be tantalizing—especially when conventional „high yield” savings accounts are paying a pathetic 0.5% these days—most people quickly learn that navigating the world of DeFi is complex and intimidating. So they sit out.
That’s why an app called Donut, whose backers include the owners of the Washington Nationals, is intriguing. Launched last year, it looks like many other banking or investing apps but plugs into DeFi on the back-end to offer users a handsome 4% return—redeemable anytime—on dollars they deposit.
„It’s for people who say 'I like the idea of DeFi but just want dollars in and dollars out,'” says Donut CEO Neel Popat. „We decided to take the best of fintech and make a DeFi application for normies.”
Popat explained that Donut invests in high-yield DeFi platforms like Aave and Yearn, but „abstracts away” th
