Bitfinex Lending Period: 2, 30 or 120 Days?
Contents
Every Bitfinex funding offer needs a period between 2 and 120 days. It's often read as "my money is lent out for exactly this long." It isn't.
The period is a maximum
The period is the longest the borrower can keep your money. They can repay at any time, and the money comes back to your funding wallet early.
The period also affects matching. In the example from Bitfinex's documentation, a borrower asking for 10 days only matches offers of 10 days or longer. So a longer period can meet more of the borrowing demand, while a short one only reaches short-term borrowers.
Short periods: flexible, but busy
With a short period like 2 days, the money comes back quickly and the next loan goes out at whatever the rate is then, so you keep up with the market.
The catch is how often it comes back. Each time, someone has to offer it again, or it sits idle in the funding wallet.
Long periods: the upside and the trap
When rates spike, lending for 30 days or more can keep a high rate working for longer.
The trap is that borrowers do the math too. When rates fall, a borrower paying a high rate can repay and borrow again more cheaply, and Bitfinex's documentation says borrowers can do exactly that. So a long loan at a high rate often ends sooner than you'd hope.
The reverse holds as well. Lock in a long period while rates are low, and when rates climb, that money keeps earning the old low rate. The borrower has no reason to repay early.
How to choose
When rates are ordinary, short periods keep you flexible, and your money doesn't get stuck at a low rate.
Long periods are worth considering only when rates are clearly higher than usual, and even then, don't count on the loan running its full term.
If you're lending a larger amount, you don't have to put all of it on one period.
EZLO picks the period and rate for each offer based on the current market, and offers your money again as soon as it's back in the funding wallet. For how interest is calculated, see How Bitfinex lending interest works.