MEXC Futures Earn: Earn Up to 15% APY on Stablecoins

MEXC Futures Earn, launched in October 2025, is a passive income feature that lets you earn yield on stablecoins (USDT and USDC) held in your futures trading account — without needing to open any futures positions. The product was designed to solve a common friction point: traders who keep stablecoin margin in their futures account waiting for opportunities were earning zero return on idle capital. Now, those funds automatically generate interest.

The mechanics are straightforward. When you enable Futures Earn, your available (unused as margin) stablecoin balance in the futures wallet is automatically allocated to MEXC's lending pool. This pool provides liquidity for margin trading — when other users borrow USDT/USDC for leveraged positions, they pay interest, and that interest is distributed to Futures Earn participants. The APY fluctuates based on market demand for borrowing: during high-volatility periods when many traders are opening leveraged positions, rates climb toward the 15% ceiling; during calm markets, rates may drop to 3-5%.

Critically, your funds remain in your futures account and can be used as margin at any time. If you open a position that requires the capital, it is automatically unsubscribed from Futures Earn and deployed as margin. This seamless integration means there is no opportunity cost — you earn yield while waiting and trade when ready.

Futures Earn currently supports two assets: USDT and USDC. APY rates are variable and depend on borrowing demand, but MEXC structures them in tiers based on the amount allocated. For the first 10,000 USDT/USDC, you receive the highest available rate (up to 15% APY during peak demand). Amounts between 10,001 and 100,000 receive a mid-tier rate (typically 8-12% APY). Amounts above 100,000 receive the base tier rate (typically 3-6% APY). This tiered structure ensures that smaller depositors are not crowded out by whale capital.

Interest accrues hourly and is credited to your futures wallet balance every 8 hours. You can view your accumulated earnings in the Futures Earn dashboard under Assets. The displayed APY is an annualized figure based on the current hourly rate — actual annual returns will vary as rates fluctuate daily.

The auto-subscribe feature is particularly convenient. When enabled in your Futures Earn settings, any stablecoin balance that becomes available in your futures account — whether from a deposit, a closed position releasing margin, or a realized profit — is automatically enrolled in Futures Earn. This eliminates the need to manually re-subscribe after each trade, ensuring maximum capital efficiency. You can toggle auto-subscribe on or off at any time without affecting existing subscriptions.

While Futures Earn is lower risk than active trading, it is not risk-free. The primary risk is platform risk — your funds are held on MEXC, and in the unlikely event of a platform insolvency or security breach, you could lose your capital. Unlike bank deposits, crypto exchange balances are not insured by government deposit insurance schemes. This is the same risk you face by holding any funds on any centralized exchange.

A secondary risk is rate variability. The advertised "up to 15% APY" is a ceiling, not a guarantee. During periods of low market activity, rates can drop to 2-3% APY. If you are comparing Futures Earn to fixed-rate alternatives (like a 6-month locked staking product on another platform), understand that the variable rate means your actual annual return could be significantly lower than the peak rate.

There is also a subtle opportunity cost consideration. While your funds earn yield in Futures Earn, they are still denominated in stablecoins. In a bull market, holding stablecoins means missing out on asset appreciation. However, for traders who maintain a stablecoin-heavy futures account by design — using stablecoins as margin for directional bets — Futures Earn adds return without changing the underlying strategy.

Regular MEXC Earn (accessible from the main "Earn" section) offers flexible and fixed-term savings products across dozens of cryptocurrencies. The key differences from Futures Earn are: (1) Location — regular Earn uses your spot wallet, while Futures Earn uses your futures wallet, so the products serve different use cases. (2) Asset variety — regular Earn supports 50+ tokens, while Futures Earn is limited to USDT and USDC. (3) Lock periods — regular Earn offers both flexible (withdraw anytime) and fixed-term (7, 14, 30, 60, 90 days) options with higher APY for longer locks, while Futures Earn is always flexible. (4) APY — regular Earn flexible stablecoin products typically offer 2-4% APY, significantly lower than Futures Earn's variable 3-15%.

Compared to competitors: Binance's Simple Earn offers similar flexible stablecoin products at 2-5% APY but does not have a futures-integrated equivalent. OKX's Simple Earn provides 2-4% APY on USDT. Bybit's Flexible Savings offers 3-6% APY. MEXC Futures Earn's peak rates of 10-15% APY during volatile markets are notably higher than competitors, though these rates are not sustained during calm periods. The unique advantage of Futures Earn is the seamless integration with the futures trading workflow — no other major exchange offers comparable passive yield directly within the futures wallet.

For optimal capital efficiency, consider using both: regular MEXC Earn for long-term holdings you are not planning to trade, and Futures Earn for stablecoin margin that needs to remain liquid for trading opportunities.