Haru Invest Referral Code: sgcryptoinvestor (Review, Usage Notes and Referral Benefits)

Company

Crypto In, More Crypto Out. It’s simple as that.

Launched on 6 August 2019, Haru Invest is a digital asset management and custody platform. The platform was formerly known as HaruBank was renamed to Haru Invest in September 2020.

Executives:

• CEO is Mr Hugo Lee Hyungsoo [Feb 2022]
• CTO is Mr Joo Eunkwang

Business model

Haru Invest only accepts BTC, ETH, USDT and XRP as of September 2022. My top question is how are such high yields possible?

Haru Invest directly manages all members’ assets without relying on other CeFi or DeFi platforms. Investors’ assets are allocated to various strategies that turn market volatility into profit. Strategies include:

• Arbitrage Trading: leverage BTC and ETH price gaps between crypto exchanges.
• Market Neutral Strategy: based on price stability mechanism at futures exchange.
• Spread Trading: focuses on the volatility of the BTC/ETH futures contract.
• Options Trading

The trades are performed by the expert in-house trading team and external strategic trading partners. These trading partners are carefully vetted and must have a strong track record over the past 18 months. Also, they only perform trades on crypto derivative platforms which handle more than 1 billion in trade volume daily.

Their huge trade volume entitles them to VIP tiers at the crypto derivative platforms they use, and lets them enjoy reduce fees and charges. This helps improve the yield of their trades.

“We are not only making profit from arbitraging but utilizing diverse inefficiency between crypto derivative market.”

Haru Invest stresses that unlike the failed business model of various other platforms, they have never operated a lending model as a way to generate yield.

“At Haru Invest, we do not have borrowers for your deposits. Instead, we invest them for you with minimized risk. That’s why your earnings at Haru Invest can go higher than at the other services.”

Statement by CEO Hugo Lee [Jul 2022]:

• “Haru Invest isn’t like other CeFi platforms out there. We do not operate as a lending model. We generate and distribute earnings through mid to high frequency algorithmic trading with risk-averse strategies. Having started with arbitrage on price gaps between spot exchanges, we now exploit the gaps and inefficiencies between crypto derivative exchanges. We have developed and tested and will continue to test new strategies that will generate stable earnings for all our members.”

• “I’d like to strongly highlight that we do not allocate your assets in any other CeFi or DeFi platforms and we will continue to do so. We have never relied on Anchor Protocol, Lido, nor any stETH leverages. All your assets are managed directly by our strong in-house trading team and trusted global partners.* Hence, the collapse of UST and stETH depeg did not impact us in any way. We are still performing at the level we’ve always operated at, regardless of market fluctuations.”

Investors

• strategic investment funding of $4 million at a $284 million valuation [Sep 2022]
  • led by Chun Yang-Hyun, executive chairman of Cocone Corporation
  • funds will support the company’s talent acquisition, licensing and global expansion plans.

Location of company

• Haru Invest was launched by Block Crafters.
  • Block Crafters has a crypto hedge fund subsidiary called Block Crafters Capital (BCC), and both are established in Singapore.
    • BCC joined Haru Invest as a primary partner
  • Currently, Haru Invest and BCC are distinct business units of Block Crafters.
• From the Haru Invest LinkedIn profile, the team seems to be headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.
  • There is a legal entity Block Crafters Inc. in Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea

The footer in emails from Haru Invest in July 2022 states the following:

by Haru Management Limited

Unit 8, 3/F., Qwomar Trading Complex, Blackburne Road, Port Purcell, Tortola, BVI

Haru Management Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bcharu Pte. Ltd., a private limited company registered in Singapore.

Key metrics

• 54,000+ global users [Sep 2022]
• Users from 140+ countries [Sep 2022]
• Total Transaction Volume: $2.11B+ [Sep 2022]
• Total number of earning paid-outs: 1.5M+ [Feb 2022]

Notable developments

• announced the launch of an Approved Fund in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The Fund is recognized as an “Approved Fund” under the Securities and Investment Business (Incubator and Approved Funds) Regulations, 2015 of the British Virgin Islands. [23 Feb 2021]

Presence in Singapore

Haru Management Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bcharu Pte. Ltd., a private limited company registered in Singapore.

Memberships

• Blockchain Association Singaproe: Haru United Pte. Ltd.
• Singapore Fintech Association: Haru United Pte. Ltd.

Regulatory Compliance

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

Unknown

Other regions

Might not be a complete list:

• USA: acquired a Money Service Business (MSB) license) [Aug 2022]
  • obtained by Haruus LLC, a U.S. incorporated subsidiary of Haru Invest
  • MSB license is a financial service license supervised and granted by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (U.S. FinCEN)
  • mandatory for any digital asset-related service providers to conduct their businesses in compliance with U.S. regulations
  • as an official MSB across all 50 U.S. states, Haru Invest is approved to carry out operations as a money transmitter service — including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies

Reviews

• TrustPilot: Haru Invest
  • Verified company
  • Average 4.9 stars and graded ‘Excellent’ from 236 reviews [Feb 2022]

Social media

• Facebook: Haru Invest
• Medium: Haru Invest
  • performance updates
  • weekly earn rate updates
  • company news
• Reddit: r/HaruInvest
• Telegram: https://t.me/HaruQnA

Ecosystem

Refer to the guidebook for more information about the platform.

Access to Haru Invest

• Android app (rated 4.8 stars on Google Play)
• iOS app
• Web

Haru Earn (Haru Wallet)

Lock-up and earn more. Enjoy the highest earn rates in the market.

When you deposit funds into Haru Invest, they first go into the ‘Haru Wallet’. This is already an interest bearing account by itself. To further enhance yields, there are two product options, namely ‘Earn Plus’ and ‘Earn Explore’.

Earn Plus (Fixed Earn Rate)

Earn Plus allows assets to be locked up for a fixed interest payout rate.

To ensure the security of client assets, Haru Invest transfers assets deposited at Earn Plus to a cold wallet securely managed by Block Crafters. The deposits at Earn Plus are managed by global asset management partners of Haru Invest, which generates stable profits using various strategies discussed previously.

The global asset management partners have to fulfill the following criteria:

• Registered corporations only.
• Crypto asset management companies with at least four professionals, preferably with strength in algorithm trading.
• Total annual trading volume of at least 100 million USD.
• Asset management history for at least 18-months.
• A strong track record with low volatility and profit above the industry average.

Steps:

1. Select cryptocurrency: amount is flexible
2. Flexible lock-up period: Set your lock-up period from 15-365 days. The longer your lock-up, the higher your earnings will be.
3. Withdraw earnings freely: Withdraw your earnings anytime you want while your principal is still at work.

Earn Explore (Performance Based Returns)

In ‘Earn Explore’, investors select a strategy and the system monitors the market 24/7, automatically buying and selling crypto to generate a high return.

Like trading bots, Haru Invest relies on trading algorithms. The difference is that Haru Invest’s experts continuously monitor the market conditions and update the algorithms to increase profit with minimal risk.

Haru Invest is transparent and publishes its performance figures bi-weekly. They will take a 15% cut of earning if they exceed 15% APR. Otherwise, there are no fees.

This product has undergone a couple of naming changes from ‘Haru X’ -> ‘Haru Invest (Oct 2020)’ -> ‘Earn Explore (2021)’. ‘Haru Invest’ was a particularly confusing name as it was identical to the brand name.

Haru Freeze

Freeze your Haru products to Collectibles. Extra earning and digital art to your Haru Wallet.

Haru Freeze is an all-new crypto asset service that allows you to freeze Earn Plus lockups to create a unique collection of digital Crystals. With these Crystals, you’ll get increased earn rates and reduced management fees, and best of all, enjoy ownership of one-of-a-kind digital collectibles available only on Haru.

Key points:

• Members can issue Frosts according to the total amount and lock-up period of the Earn Plus products they have.
• When in Frost form, the Earn Plus lockup product will be “frozen” - period will be paused and Earn Plus daily earnings will not be paid out.
• When in Frost form, daily earning (of the lockup amount) will be paid based on Haru Wallet earn rates.
• Frost is available for trade in Marketplace, whereas Earn Plus lock-up isn’t.
• Frosts can be melted back into Earn Plus lock-up at any time.
• Once melted, the earn rate of your Earn Plus lock-up will recover to the same rate before frozen, and the lock-up days counter will recover as well.

Freeze Marketplace

Officially launched in July 2022, Marketplace is a trade service that allows members to trade Frost products — the frozen form of Earn Plus lock-ups. This allows users to liquidate their lockup products immediately (for sellers), instead of waiting for the lock up period to be over. Also, users can buy other member’s Frosts at a discounted price.

Haru Switch

Swap your coins in just a few clicks. Become a liquidity provider to farm more crypto.

Switch is a community-driven pool where you can contribute your crypto assets to the pool and get earnings from transactions as swaps happen.

Luminary Club

Luminary Club is a quarterly VIP service provided only to those who have been continuously using Haru Earn products and received a certain amount of earnings during the past quarter. Various and exclusive benefits are provided to different tiers of VIP members.

✔️ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Daily payouts

Interest is paid out daily and compound automatically.

Flexible lockup period

Investors can choose how long they want to lockup for Earn Plus from 15 to 365 days.

Insurance of funds

Haru Invest uses BitGo as a custody service. Learn about BitGo’s: 100 million USD coverage for digital assets.

Low withdrawal fees

From 5 October 2022, fees will be updated to:

• Bitcoin (BTC) : 0.0001 BTC
• Ethereum (ETH) : 0.005 ETH → 0.004 ETH
• Tether (USDT) : 1 USDT → 10 USDT (huge increase)
• XRP (XRP) : 1 XRP

Withdraw your earnings anytime you want while your principal is still at work

Haru Invest allows investors to withdraw their earning anytime even in the fixed lock-up scheme of Earn Plus

❌ Drawbacks

Limited crypto asset types supported

As of February 2022, only BTC, ETH and USDT is supported.

Only ERC20 support for USDT deposits

As only ERC20 is supported as of February 2022, it can be pricey to deposit USDT into Haru Invest.

Personal Experience, Usage Notes and Tips

Onboarding

I signed up via the webapp version on a desktop browser in February 2022.

Cannot find the sign-up button on the sign-up form?

If you are trying to sign up via the webapp on a web browser like me, you might notice that the ‘Sign Up" button gets pushed down as you fill up the form. Do note that you must keep your mouse within the red box area in order to scroll downwards to reach the ‘Sign Up’ button.

Know Your Customer (KYC) Process

The KYC was completed within 10 minutes via Haru Invest’s KYC provider sumsub.

For me, it involved the following:

• performing some action in the selfie camera on mobile
• uploading bank statement for proof of address
• uploading identification card (NRIC)

Customer Support

Immediately after signing up, I was experiencing problems accessing Haru Invest from my mobile phone, and reached out to Haru Invest via the chat button on the webpage.

The issue I faced was that during the login 2FA verification, no SMS OTP ever arrived on my Singapore mobile number, and the Google Authenticator OTP was always deemed invalid.

Haru Invest was very responsive initially and actively followed up with me to troubleshoot the issue. However, I stopped receiving updates from them after a week.

I tried to login on the mobile app again a month later in April 2022 and the issue has since been resolved. I managed to received an SMS OTP on my mobile.

My portfolio’s performance

View the performance of my First Haru Invest Portfolio.

XRP as an option to save on gas fees

On 30 August 2022, Haru Invest announced the support of Ripple (XRP) for Haru Wallet and Haru Switch!

This addition was based on feedback from clients who wanted to use Haru Invest more frequently but couldn’t due to high gas fees. With XRP and its incredibly low gas fee, client can now easily deposit assets in Haru Invest at a lower cost.

As of August 2022, XRP in the Haru Wallet earns up to 2.5%. Clients can also opt to swap it to BTC, ETH, or USDT with Haru Switch to lockup in a different cryptocurrency.

Attending the Haru Invest Meetup in Singapore 2022

I attended the Haru Invest Meetup in Singapore, which was held on 26 September 2022, and it was my first in-person crypto related event. I noted down what I learnt about Haru Invest in a separate blog post: “I just attended the Haru Invest Meetup in Singapore”.

Learn more on crypto investing in Singapore