What centralized exchanges really pay for just holding stablecoins. Every "up to", "first 500 USDT", new-user, VIP and buy-our-token rate is stripped out: the number you see is what a normal account earns on $10,000.
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The leaderboard
One row per exchange, coin and term, ranked by the real APR: the rate on a $10,000 balance for a normal verified account, with no promo, new-user bonus, VIP level, membership or token you have to hold. When the advertised rate only covers a small first slice, the struck-through number is that headline and the big one is what the rest of your money earns. Rates on exchanges move daily, so treat them as a snapshot. Click a row to open the earn page; hover for the fine print. A means we could not fully confirm that rate. Rows marked 🎁 our link open through our referral link: it costs you nothing and keeps this list updated.
Term
Safety
Your budgetYour budget × the real APR. We ignore the scammy "10% on your first 200 USDT" teasers: they're worth a few dollars a year.
#Exchange & coin
Nothing matches all of that. Try another coin, term or region.
Best place for each need
Headline vs real
Advertised headlineReal APR on $10k
What the numbers say
Frequently Asked Questions
Top of the board: Bitpanda USDC at 7%, Bitget USDGO 6.6%, MEXC USD1 6.5%, then YouHodler on USDT, USDC and DAI at 6% and Nexo at 5.5%. Switch Exchanges/DeFi and USD/EUR tabs — EUR coins (e.g. Bitpanda EURCV 7%) rank separately.
YouHodler leads at 6% flexible, then Nexo 5.5%, Bitfinex margin funding 5.4% and MEXC Earn Plus 5.08%. Watch the teasers: Binance advertises 6.95% but only the first 500 USDT gets the +4% bonus — the rest earns 2.95%. The big number on each row is what $10k really earns.
Bitpanda at 7% flexible, then YouHodler 6% and Nexo 5.5% base tier. Binance’s 4.67% headline is a temporary +2% promo on the first 10,000 USDC — the ongoing rate is 2.67%. Filter USDC + your region (US/UK/EU availability differs a lot).
Example: Binance USDT “6.95%” = 2.95% real + 4% on the first 500 USDT only; MEXC “10%” applies only to the 100k–110k slice. This page strips all of that — first-slice caps, new-user bonuses, VIP volume tiers, token-holding requirements — and ranks by the real APR. The “Headline vs real” section shows the gap per product.
No yield is risk-free: on exchanges you face platform and custody risk, in DeFi smart-contract and depeg risk. Bigger pools and low-risk flags help, but stablecoins can and have lost their peg. Never put in more than you can afford to lose, and treat rates as a snapshot — they move daily.
Flexible lets you withdraw any time but pays less; locked (7–120 days) pays more but your coins are stuck if the market moves. If you may need the money, filter for “Flexible, withdraw any time” only.
Daily. Exchanges adjust earn rates with funding demand and promos, so every number here is a hand-checked snapshot with its check date — hover a row for the source and always confirm on the exchange’s earn page before depositing.