Many people complain that the 3%-4% annualized return from bank savings is too low, but they've never seriously calculated their actual annualized return in the crypto space over a year. Frankly, they haven't benchmarked themselves. Today, let's take the case of $100,000 worth of BTC and compare two completely different strategies, all based on real numbers.

First, let's look at the classic diamond hands approach. You buy crypto and store it in a cold wallet, not touching it for a year. Whether you make money or not depends entirely on BTC's price movement. If the market rises 50%, your unrealized gain is $50,000. If it drops 20%, you lose $20,000. It sounds exciting, but it's basically a pure gamble on the market direction. There’s no cash flow coming in at all; even slight market fluctuations can cause your mood to swing wildly. It’s a play that relies entirely on luck.

Next, let's examine the second strategy—my current lending arbitrage setup. Collateralize $100,000 worth of BTC and borrow $50,000 in stablecoins, with a borrowing cost of just 1% per year. Then, invest the borrowed $50,000 into a top-tier exchange earning 20% annual yield on stablecoins. Assuming BTC appreciates 50% over the year, the numbers become clear: BTC unrealized gains of $50,000, and the arbitrage net profit margin is 19%, which amounts to roughly $9,500. The total annualized return reaches 59.5%.

The key point here is— that $9,500 isn’t just market appreciation; it’s real cash flow. The diamond hands approach is a single-leg bet, but adding the arbitrage mechanism turns it into a dual-driven system: price fluctuations plus cash flow. The volatility is significant, but the risk resistance is maximized.

Ultimately, the core logic is simple: generate a 19% spread through low-cost borrowing. This isn’t a matter of whether it’s good or bad; it’s a matter of perception. While others are debating whether bank interest is 3% or 4%, our approach is to preserve the flexibility of price appreciation while securely pocketing nearly 20% guaranteed returns. This is the truly valuable aspect of the entire ecosystem worth deep exploration.