Coinloan Review [2023]

Key Takeaways

I understand you may not have enough time to read my full Coinloan review.

So here is an actionable summary to help you make a decision.

My Coinloan rating: 9 / 10

Register on Coinloan if you value:

• Wide Crypto Selection. Coinloan supports seven coins for earning interest.  
• Top Licenses. Coinloan holds a number of licenses, increasing its trustworthiness. 
• Robust Insurance. Coinloan is partnered with Bitgo to offer insurance up to $100 million. 
• Good Interest Rates. Coinloan offers interest rates from 3% to 10.3%.

Don’t register on Coinloan if you value:

• Inflexible Repayment Terms. Loan repayment conditions are often set at the time you apply for the loan. 
• Customer service. Coinloan does not as good of customer service as competitors like Blockfi.
• CLT dependency. You need to stake CLT tokens to enjoy the best rates for lending and borrowing.
• Geo-restriction. You reside in one of the restricted countries.

#1 - Coinloan Background

• Year founded: 2017
• Headquarters: Estonia
• Insurance: $100 Million through Bitgo of Lloyd’s of London
• License(s): FinCEN MSB Registration, FATCA FFI Registration through the IRS, European Trademark through EUIPO, MTR licenses
• Currencies available to earn interest: BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, XMR, CLT, ONT
• Currencies available for borrowing: EUR, USDT, USDC, PAX, BTC, TUSD, BUSD, ETH, BCH, LTC, XMR, XRP, LINK, DAI
• Type of service: Direct lending

Restricted Countries

Don’t use Coinloan if you’re residing in a country that is on the US or EU sanctions list. This includes the following countries:

• North Korea
• Sudan
• Iran
• Iraq
• Egypt
• Romania
• China
• Turkey
• Colombia
• Kazakhstan
• Nicaragua
• Angola
• Algeria
• Russia
• Nigeria
• Saudi Arabia
• Pakistan

If you think you might live in a country that is on the US or EU sanctions list, Coinloan requests that you reach out to them with your questions.
 

#2 - Is Coinloan Safe?

Reputation Rating: 9 / 10

I consider Coinloan to be extremely safe.

Background

Coinloan was started in February 2017 by Alex Faliushin and Max Sapelov.

Alex Faliushin in particular has 7-years experience in finance and IT.  

Max Sapelov co-founded the IT Security Group in 2015. He also holds a cryptography certificate from Stanford University in 2013. 

The pair started Coinloan with the goal of making cryptocurrency accessible to a wider audience. They launched an ICO in mid-November 2017.

The Coinloan ICO offered tokens at $2 and quickly sold out. 

Alex Faliushin and Max Sapelov have since used those ICO funds they raised to keep building Coinloan despite the “crypto winter” from 2018 to 2020.

Licenses

Coinloan holds a number of important licenses for a top-tier DeFi platform to hold.

FinCEN MSB Registration, FATCA FFI Registration, EU IPO European Trademark, MTR Virtual Currency Wallet Service license, MTR Virtual & Fiat Currency Exchange Service license, MTR Financial Institution License.

The FinCEN registration is needed for Coinloan to operate legally in the U.S. while the MTR and EU IPO trademarks and licenses help Coinloan operate in the EU.

These types of licenses are important to consider, because their absence would signal that Coinloan could perform an exit scam without legal ramifications.

Insurance

Coinloan partnered with Bitgo, a well-known and experienced provider of security.
 
Through Bitgo, Coinloan offers its customers insurance on their funds up to $100 million. 

This insurance is secured by Lloyd’s of London.

Their $100 million policy covers digital assets.

BitGo Trust Company, or BitGo for short, holds 100% of their private keys.

If a third-party hack, copying, or theft of private keys occurs, Lloyd’s of London will replace up to $100 million US of the amount taken.

The $100 million US insurance police also covers Insider theft or dishonest acts by BitGo.

If any such unfortunate events should occur, the insurance payout would be distributed as follows:

“BitGo will make best efforts to distribute insurance recoveries across all clients who have suffered losses. 

In the event that total losses exceed insurance recoveries, this does not change BitGo’s legal obligations outlined in customer agreements.”

This type of insurance puts Coinloan at or above the insurance offered by standard banks and financial institutions around the world. 

By contrast, the Celsius Network uses Fireblocks and Primetrust as their custodians. 

Since Celsius Network has no insurance, only relying on their custodians, it does not offer the same level of trustworthiness as Coinloan.

Security Features

Coinloan has strong security measures for customers' funds in place, so that no insurance needs to be involved in the first place. 

Their list of security features includes: 

• Secure Cloud Infrastructure 
• Modern Encryption Standards (SSL with TLS 1.3, DNSSEC, HSTS) 
• Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SSDLC) 
• Bug Bounty Program
• PCI DSS Certification 
• Account Takeover Protection 

The Coinloan Bug Bounty program is an active security. Rather than just relying on passive security features, Coinloan is actively testing their security.

Coinloan’s partnering program is focused on partnering with white hat hackers.

Coinloan welcomes ethical specialists to analyze vulnerabilities and enhance the security of services infrastructure. 

The collaboration between Coinloan and white hat hackers means Coinloan can react immediately to any potential security breaches.

Security breaches such as bugs or vulnerabilities are fixed with updates. 

If new threats to smart contracts or DeFi present themselves, Coinloan can rely on their teams of white hat hackers to test the security in place. 

Online Complaints

In my own research, as of September 29th, 2023, I found no legitimate instances of complaints or accusations of scams at Coinloan.  

It’s a positive sign for this review of Coinloan that the company strives to keep their customers happy while resolving any online complaints.

#3 - Earning Interest With Coinloan

Rating: 7 / 10

Coinloan’s savings accounts are good.

The Coinloan interest account offers several options for customers. 

The Lending Process

If you’re new to DeFi, don’t worry. The lending process for Coinloan is as easy and standard as the other DeFi platforms.

1. Sign up for an account
2. Deposit the amount of cryptocurrency you want ($100 USD min.)
3. Earn compounded interest in the currency of your deposit.
4. Withdraw when you need your currency for other purposes.

Make sure to always double check the address you send and withdraw your funds to.

Rates

Coinloan interest rates are earned for depositing USDC, USDT, TUSD, PAX, BTC, BCH, ETH, and EUR.

If you compare that to the interest rates offered by your standard bank, you’ll find that a typical bank account offers a savings account with interest ranging from 1% to 3%.

Benefits of the Coinloan Token (CLT)

If you’re looking to maximize the interest you earn, then you might want to consider staking Coinloan’s own utility token: CLT.

To earn promotional interest rates, you need to own at least 125 CoinLoan tokens.

The more Coinloan tokens you hold, the higher your interest rates. 

If you hold 2,500 CLT, you will earn the maximum of 10.3% on USDT and 6.4% on BTC.

To break it down further, the benefits are as follows:

There is no minimal staking time needed to get bonus rates. Within a day after deposit, all interest rates in the Interest Account will increase by 0,1% with every 125 CLT you hold:

125 CLT raises your Interest Account rates by 0.1%;
375 CLT — by 0.3%;
1,000 CLT— by 0.8%;
1,250 CLT — by 1%;
2,500 CLT — by 2%.

After you stake 2,500 CLT, the benefits are capped out.

Terms

#4 - Borrowing Through Coinloan

The Borrowing Process

1. Go to Coinloan.com and sign up
2. Enter the loan terms you want
3. Deposit collateral
4. Withdraw your loan in the currency you need
5. Pay back the loan to get your collateral back

Loan eligibility criteria

RatesCoinloan offers the following interest rates for borrowers.

Terms

There are several terms available to borrowers on Coinloan that differ from the terms of their competitors.

For instance, a short-term loan (7 - 30 days) must be repaid with a single payment. 

Coinloan also offers a long-term loan (2 - 36 months).

The long-term loan must be repaid every month, according to a repayment schedule. 

So if you plan to borrow from Coinloan, make sure to think about which term length suits you best and fits the repayment schedule you’d like to use. 

Also keep in mind the typical Coinloan fee to borrow funds is stated by Coinloan as:

“Borrowing fees are calculated as 1% of the overall loan principal amount.”

There are no fees to deposit or withdraw. Unless you are planning to deposit fiat via VISA or Mastercard, then the fee is 2 EUR + 4.2% of the deposit amount.

#5 - Other Coinloan Features

Coinloan offers only one special feature: its CLT token.

The CLT token

If you’re looking to maximize the interest you earn, then you might want to consider staking Coinloan’s own utility token: CLT.

The CLT token is a product, but when you stake it, it acts as a feature that boosts how much you earn as a lender.

The benefits run like this:

“When you own at least 125 CoinLoan tokens, you get promotional interest rates for all assets in the Interest Account. The more coins you have, the higher your rates. If you hold 2,500 CLT, you will be eligible to earn 10.3% on USDT and 6.4% on BTC.”

To break it down further, the benefits are as follows:

There is no minimal staking time needed to get bonus rates. Within a day after deposit, all interest rates in the Interest Account will increase by 0,1% with every 125 CLT you hold:

125 CLT raises your Interest Account rates by 0.1%;
375 CLT — by 0.3%;
1,000 CLT— by 0.8%;
1,250 CLT — by 1%;
2,500 CLT — by 2%.

After you stake 2,500 CLT, the benefits are capped out. 

The CLT token also offers a discount for people who borrow. When you stake CLT tokens, the Coinloan fees to borrow are reduced by half (50%) of the amount typically charged. 

#6 - User Experience

Rating: 7 / 10

The user experience on Coinloan is very user friendly.

Using the mobile app

The Coinloan app lets you manage your loan, portfolio, and monitor your interest rates. 

It’s a sleek app with good ease-of-use and quick response time.

It could have a few more features, such as whitelisting addresses, and allowing you to triple check the crypto address you’re sending or receiving to/from. 

Overall however, its integration of 2FA and other security measures makes it safe to use.

The mobile app is available for both Android and iOS users. Both apps are well rated on their respective app stores.

Coinloan look and feel

Coinloan may not have the sleek, modern website and app that Celsius Network or Youhodler have, but it is modern enough to be easy to navigate and use.

Full KYC required

Coinloan requires full KYC to be done.

The process is simple. All you need to do is upload your ID and a selfie. If they require further verification, then you may need to submit a utility bill from the past three months. 

KYC is not only standard for DeFi but also unavoidable in most cases. 

All money-transmitting businesses must adhere to “Know Your Customer.” Doing so helps prevent terrorist financing.

If you stumble upon a DeFi platform which does not require KYC, be weary. 

A lack of KYC puts you at risk of the platform performing an unrecoverable exit scam!

Useful FAQ section

If this review of Coinloan did not answer all your questions, rest assured that Coinloan has an informative FAQ area where you can find more answers. 

The Coinloan Help Center is easily searchable and contains plenty of articles on most topics.

For some information, such as country restrictions, you may need to reach out to Coinloan itself. 

Nevertheless, they reply in the standard 24-48 hours, which is on par with their competitors such as Celsius Network and Youhodler. 

#7 - Customer Service

Rating: 6 / 10

Coinloan offers a decent customer service.

Coinloan provides support through all the standard methods of email, chat, and phone. 

They are a growing company, so their priority is making sure their early customers are satisfied. 

Perhaps they could work on adding more staff to make the wait times shorter, but that’ll come with time. 

The fastest and most effective way to reach customer service and resolve your problems is through the chat box.

You can connect to an FAQ bot first, and if that doesn’t solve your query, you can escalate to a customer service representative. 

If neither of these work, then you can submit your questions through email or phone. 

Competitors such as Blockfi, Celsius, Youhodler, and others all offer this standard suite of customer service resources. 

However, from my experience, Coinloan’s chat support does not respond as quickly as their competitors.

Coinloan Review Summary

Is Coinloan legit? 

Yes. It may be a newcomer to the DeFi space but then again, DeFi itself is quite a fresh new fintech idea. 

The rates are good for the industry, the fees are minimal, and the performance of the site is all inline with modern requirements. 

When they staff more customer service, Coinloan will rise as a top provider in the DeFi space -- giving people true financial control and freedom. 

Do you have suggestions and/or comments? Did I miss anything? Would you like to add your testimony as a Coinloan customer? 

Let me know in the comments section!