The Real Cost of Investing When the Platform Fee Is Zero

The 0% rate covers the platform's own charge for entering a standard investment, holding the position, and receiving its payments. It does not cover the network transactions needed to invest or collect funds. A secondary market sale has its own platform fee.

This distinction matters when comparing p2p lending fees. A platform's fee column answers how much the operator charges. It cannot, on its own, show the full cost of opening, maintaining, and eventually collecting a position.

Holding a loan does not create a recurring gas charge simply because time passes. Sending an on-chain transaction does. An investor who checks the dashboard regularly but claims occasionally has a different transaction count from someone who collects every available payment.

Base charges for processing on-chain transactions, including investment, claim, withdrawal, and secondary market transactions. The network fee is paid in ETH and is separate from the USD amount invested. 8lends neither sets that charge nor receives it as a platform commission.

Base network fees cover transaction execution and the publication of transaction data on the underlying network. For the investor's cost calculation, the important distinction is that this is network expenditure, not revenue paid to 8lends.

The platform's business-model FAQ lists around $1–3 for an investment transaction. Treat that as a published reference figure, not a fixed price for every operation. Another 8lends fee FAQ describes much lower transaction costs and a $1–3 wallet balance sufficient for multiple operations. The wallet estimate is therefore more useful than either general figure when deciding whether to confirm a transaction.

Are Base network fees the same for every transaction?

No. The amount varies with network demand and the work required by the transaction. A claim and an investment need not cost the same, even if both are submitted close together.

Check the fee estimate in the wallet immediately before confirming. The published range is neither a minimum nor a ceiling, and it should not replace the transaction-specific estimate.

Does 8lends profit from network fees paid by investors?

No. Gas fees pay for network processing rather than an 8lends service charge. They remain a separate expense even when the platform's charge for the investor's action is 0%.

The seller pays 8lends a 10% fee on the sale transaction amount. It is withheld from the proceeds, rather than added as a platform charge for the buyer. Network fees can also apply to the transaction.

For a hypothetical sale agreed at 500 USD, the platform fee is 50 USD. That leaves 450 USD in sale proceeds before the seller's network costs. The calculation uses the agreed sale price, which may differ from the amount originally invested.

Is the 10% secondary market fee charged to the buyer or the seller?

It is charged to the seller. The buyer pays the agreed purchase price and no platform purchase fee, but may still incur the applicable network fee.

8lends sets its standard investor charge at 0% and its secondary market seller fee at 10%. It also sets the origination fee charged to borrowers. Base network fees follow the network's fee rules and conditions rather than 8lends' pricing decisions.

A 0% investor fee describes only what 8lends itself charges; it does not include the external Base network fee (around $1–3 per transaction, per the platform's reference figure) paid in ETH for each investment, claim, or withdrawal, or the 10% seller fee on early exits through the secondary market — both are real costs that affect what an investor actually keeps.

The range in that reference is indicative. The wallet estimate for the particular transaction is the relevant figure before confirmation.

A claim is a separate on-chain transaction to collect available interest. It requires gas even though the platform charge is 0%. For a small payment, the network cost can represent a substantial share of the amount collected.

Consider a hypothetical 100 USD position with 2 USD available to claim. If the transaction costs 1–3 USD, the fee equals 50–150% of that payment. At the upper end, collecting it costs more than the interest collected.

Those are illustrative assumptions, not a quoted payout or a typical Base fee. If the actual wallet estimate is lower, the proportion falls accordingly.

Now suppose three payments accumulate to 6 USD. Three separate claims costing 1–3 USD each would total 3–9 USD. One claim costing 1–3 USD would consume roughly 17–50% of the accumulated amount. Waiting can reduce transaction count, although the eventual fee may change.

Unclaimed interest is not automatically reinvested. It remains available on the contract until collected. The choice concerns when to collect, not automatic compounding.

8lends is operated by CLEARCHAIN CORP, a Canadian company registered with FINTRAC as a Money Services Business (registration No. C100001102). Maclear AG (Switzerland), a member of PolyReg SRO, acts as the independent Collateral Agent — it does not operate the platform, is not its parent company, and does not hold investor funds.

Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Returns are not guaranteed.