How to read a target rate

Every product on the platform publishes a target annual rate. It is the most prominent number on the page, which makes it the number most worth being careful about.

A target is a plan, not a promise

The rate states what a product aims to accrue over a year at the current settings. It is not a forecast of what you will receive, and it is not insured. We are required to say that, and we would say it anyway, because a client who is surprised later is a client we have failed.

Question one: where does the money come from?

On this platform, accrual comes from a funded reward pool at a published rate. That is a simple mechanism with a specific failure mode: if the pool is not funded, accrual stops. We would rather name that than describe returns as coming from "strategies".

Whenever you read a rate anywhere, ask what produces it. An answer you cannot follow to a source of cash is not an answer.

Question two: what currency is it in?

A rate quoted in an asset is a return in that asset. Nine per cent in a token that falls twelve per cent against your home currency is a loss you can describe as a gain. For a stablecoin the question is smaller but not zero — it is a question about the issuer.

Question three: what does it cost to leave?

Entry fees, exit fees, early exit fees and the lock-up together determine what an advertised rate is actually worth over the period you can realistically hold. A high rate behind a long lock and an early exit fee is a different product from the same rate with none of those, and the difference shows up exactly when you need the money.

Every one of those numbers is on the product page before you commit. Read the four together, not the big one alone.