Bitcoin doesn't pay a dividend.

How do you plan to make money while holding?

You can actually lend your btc at a pretty good rate. Over 5% on BlockFi. Rates are lower on defi exchanges because there is a risk premium as people figure it out and actually borrow.

right, but where does that interest come from? so SPY dividend comes from the stocks making money and earning cashflows. Bitcoin lending interest comes from people borrowing it to trade, a somewhat circular arrangement.

Who cares what people who borrow do with it. 5% or whatever is all I care about as an investor + getting my money back.

Of course, just pointing out that this dividend doesn’t give bitcoin value, it exists when bitcoin has value. With stocks, the expected cash dividend is what gives them ultimate value.

Youre pointing out at this stage that btc is a non cash flow asset...yes most people know that. Same with oil and commodities and gold.

The 'interest' comes from lending your BTC to short-sellers.

As always, where there's a return, there's also a risk.

5% per year? 5% per month? 5% per week?

Annual

Compounding too.

You could also buy USDC (no fees through coinbase) and BlockFi pays 8.6% apy.

Ally bank just emailed me that they are lowering the APY again. It is lowered almost monthly and is almost 0 now.

You can also have BlockFI interest automatically go into BTC. So, you can DCA automatically by just letting your cash sit there.

in order to actually make money, you'd still need a third step of "sell" (or you could spend the BTC directly, i guess)

As a bitcoiner myself, I like to think of dollars and BTC as just two currencies. Buying BTC is equivalent to selling dollars. If you think that BTC is the better money, it makes sense to move into it and stay there perpetually.

Isn't that the same as buy low, sell high?