EarnPark pays up to 15% APY on USDT and up to 10% on BTC. CEX.IO, a UK exchange trading since 2013, currently pays 4% on flexible USDT and 0.25% on flexible BTC, and carries a notice on its own homepage saying that deposits and trading are unavailable while regulatory work continues.
That notice is the first thing anyone reviewing CEX.IO in late 2026 has to deal with, so this review starts there rather than with a feature list. Everything below about CEX.IO comes from its own published pages and from neutral third parties, checked in September 2026.
The service notice comes first
CEX.IO's homepage carries a message headed as a MiCA service notice. In its own words, certain account functionalities including deposits and trading are not available due to ongoing regulatory updates, client funds remain safe and available, and balances can be checked or withdrawn at any time through the user menu.
Read that carefully, because the distinction matters and it is easy to get wrong in both directions. Withdrawals are not suspended. The company is not telling users their money is locked, and nothing in the public record suggests an insolvency. What it does mean is that the two things an exchange exists to do, taking deposits and matching trades, are restricted while the company works through its regulatory position in Europe. No end date is published, and the notice does not specify which regions it applies to.
For someone evaluating where to park capital, that is a live operational question rather than a footnote. An exchange you cannot deposit into is not somewhere you can start earning, whatever the advertised rate says.
What CEX.IO Earn actually pays
CEX.IO splits its yield product into flexible savings, locked savings and staking, per its own earn pages as of September 2026.
On flexible savings the headline names pay modestly. USDC, USDT and Solana sit at 4%, Tron at 3%, Cardano and Ethereum at 2%, and Bitcoin at 0.25%. A long tail of assets including Dogecoin, Litecoin, XRP and Shiba Inu pay 0.1%.
Locked savings pay more in exchange for a 30, 60 or 90 day commitment, with USDT quoted up to 12%, Ethereum up to 6% and Bitcoin up to 4%. Worth flagging that the FAQ on the same page states that a locked savings option is not presently provided, which contradicts the rates published above it. When a platform's own page disagrees with itself about whether a product exists, treat the advertised number as unconfirmed until support tells you otherwise.
Staking carries no lock and pays monthly, and this is where the higher numbers live. Cosmos is quoted at 12%, Ontology at 10%, Zilliqa at 7%, Polkadot and Kusama at 6%, Solana and Avalanche at 5%, and Cardano at 1.5%. These are proof of stake network rewards rather than a platform yield, so the rate depends on the chain rather than on CEX.IO.
The earn products are not available to users in the United States, per CEX.IO's own terms, and its homepage banner also excludes the EEA while its supported country list appears to include EEA countries. That inconsistency is worth resolving with support before depositing.
One practical caveat on every rate above. They were read from CEX.IO's own earn pages in September 2026, and by the time this piece was finalised those pages were no longer loading publicly, returning an error or a login redirect instead. Given the service notice restricting deposits and trading, that may be related rather than coincidental. Treat these figures as last confirmed rather than live, and confirm anything that matters to you with support before acting on it.
How the rates compare
| Asset | CEX.IO flexible, no lock | CEX.IO locked, 30 to 90 days | EarnPark, top of range |
|---|---|---|---|
| USDT | 4% | up to 12% | up to 15% |
| BTC | 0.25% | up to 4% | up to 10% |
| ETH | 2% | up to 6% | up to 15% |
| SOL | 4% | staking 5%, no lock | up to 20% |
Rates as advertised in September 2026 and variable on both platforms. Two things have to be said about that last column or the table misleads.
The first is that EarnPark's top figures are not lock free either. They come from the highest risk strategies in the range, which settle monthly rather than on demand and apply a short freeze around withdrawal requests. Lower down the range the picture varies again, with the medium risk strategies paying out instantly and some of the low risk ones carrying a 30 day bonding period before funds are released. So the honest comparison is not locked money against free money, it is one set of withdrawal terms against another, and both need reading on the specific product rather than the homepage.
The second is that EarnPark's figures are the base rate available to any user holding zero PARK, with the token's boost sitting on top as optional upside rather than being the route to the advertised number. That is a claim about token gating, not about withdrawal speed, and the two should not be blurred. Check the yield calculator against the marketing on either platform, and believe the calculator.
The gap on BTC is the one that stands out. A quarter of one percent on flexible Bitcoin is close to a rounding error on a meaningful position, and even the locked 4% asks for a 90 day commitment to get there.
Fees
CEX.IO runs a standard maker and taker schedule tiered on 30 day volume, per its own published fee schedule. It starts at 0.25% taker and 0.15% maker for the smallest accounts and falls to 0.10% taker and zero maker above a million dollars of monthly volume. That is unremarkable for the category and neither cheap nor expensive.
Card deposits and wire withdrawals carry additional charges. Precise figures circulating on review sites could not be confirmed against CEX.IO's own live schedule at the time of writing, so check them in the app rather than trusting a number from a comparison page, including this one. New accounts also face lower limits for the first three months.
Safety and regulatory standing
CEX.IO has been operating since 2013, which is a genuine point in its favour. Longevity in this category is not nothing, and neither CEX.IO's own security disclosures nor CertiK's incident tracking record a major breach.
On regulation the picture needs precision. CEX.IO Markets UK Limited obtained FCA registration under the Money Laundering Regulations in March 2026, with firm reference number 1007192. CEX.IO's own disclosure is careful about what that means, stating that the registration does not constitute authorisation, approval or endorsement by the Financial Conduct Authority. It covers anti money laundering supervision, and it permits the firm to make its own cryptoasset financial promotions to UK consumers. It is not a licence to operate an investment product, and it does not bring client funds inside any compensation scheme. The company also holds money transmitter licences across a large number of US states and a FinCEN registration, and describes itself as working toward full MiCA authorisation rather than holding it.
CertiK's Skynet profile scored the exchange at 83.41, an A grade, when checked in September 2026, with no pentest history recorded and a customer support rating of 2.8 out of 5. CoinGecko gave it a trust score of 7 out of 10 with roughly 13 million dollars of daily volume, which places it well down the field among centralised exchanges by liquidity. We could not locate a published proof of reserves.
For contrast, EarnPark publishes a monthly proof of reserves with on chain addresses anyone can verify in a block explorer, showing a 105% reserve ratio for September 2026, and holds client assets with Fireblocks. Be precise about what that does and does not settle. Both platforms are custodial, neither is a licensed financial institution, and neither balance is covered by any deposit guarantee, so the counterparty risk is real on both sides. The difference is how much you are given to judge it with, and on that specific point one publishes addresses you can check and the other does not. The full set of signals sits on the trust page.
Who CEX.IO is best for
The clearest fit is a UK based holder of proof of stake assets who already has a funded account and wants spot trading and network staking in one place. Cosmos at 12%, Ontology at 10% and Polkadot at 6% are real network rewards, competitive with what you would get staking those chains yourself, and CEX.IO handles the validator mechanics for you. Thirteen years of operating history and a place on the FCA's anti money laundering register, narrow as that scope is, are worth something to a reader who weights institutional longevity over headline rate. Nothing in this review argues against that user staying put.
The fit is worse in two specific cases. Someone trying to deposit new money and start earning will run into the notice, because that is precisely what it restricts. And someone holding mostly Bitcoin or stablecoins is being offered a quarter of a percent and four percent respectively on the flexible tiers, which is thin payment for leaving assets with a third party at all.
Verdict on CEX.IO vs EarnPark
These are different products competing for the same deposit. CEX.IO is an exchange with a savings feature attached. EarnPark is a managed yield platform that does not try to be an exchange. If you want to trade, CEX.IO does something EarnPark does not.
On yield the gap is wide, though it is worth being exact about what is being compared. Four percent on flexible USDT against up to 15%, and a quarter of a percent on flexible BTC against up to 10%, is not a close call on the number. The EarnPark figure does not require holding a token to reach, which is the part that genuinely differs from a gated model. It does require accepting the higher risk end of the range and a monthly settlement cycle rather than withdrawal on demand, so the comparison is a wider spread of risk and terms rather than free money sitting next to locked money. Our CeFi platform comparison sets the broader field out, and a closer look at stablecoin yields covers where those rates come from.
Both platforms ask you to accept custodial risk, and neither is covered by a deposit guarantee. If that is the sticking point, self custody is the honest answer and no rate on either site should change it. If you have decided a custodial platform is acceptable and you are choosing between them on yield, the numbers on the leading platforms are where to start, followed by the reserve disclosures on each.
Every figure here is dated and variable. Check both platforms before you move anything, and when you are ready you can start earning.