What is the Flash Return Rate (FRR)?
The Flash Return Rate (FRR) is Bitfinex’s base rate for margin funding: a moving average of recently matched funding rates for a currency, recalculated hourly by the exchange. Lenders can peg funding offers to the FRR instead of a fixed rate, so their loans float with the market. The FRR is quoted as a daily rate — multiply it by 365 to get the annualized figure (APR).
How the FRR works
Every funding currency on Bitfinex — USD, USDt, BTC, and the rest — has its own FRR, derived from the rates at which funding has recently been matched in that market and refreshed every hour. When you place an FRR offer, you are not choosing a number; you are choosing the benchmark. Once the offer is taken, the loan’s rate follows the FRR for its term, rising and falling as the exchange updates it.
Because the FRR is quoted per day, small-looking numbers are larger than they appear: a 0.03% daily rate is roughly an 11% APR. It is also always a gross figure — Bitfinex keeps 15% of the interest lenders earn, so what lands in your wallet is less than the rate on the funding book.
Why the FRR matters to lenders
The FRR is the reference point for the whole funding market. Fixed-rate offers are priced relative to it: undercut it slightly and you usually fill faster, ask above it and you wait for a demand spike. Pegging to the FRR is the low-effort default — you accept the market average, including its dips. Many lenders and lending bots instead use the FRR as a signal, for example only locking longer 120-day terms when the FRR is unusually high. One practical wrinkle: FRR offers join a queue, so when a lot of capital is pegged to the FRR, new FRR offers can take time to fill.
Worked example: from FRR to net APR
Suppose the USD FRR reads 0.0274% — that is per day. Annualized: 0.0274% × 365 ≈ 10.0% APR gross. Bitfinex keeps 15% of earned interest, so the net is about 8.5% APR. On a $10,000 loan that is roughly $2.74 per day gross, about $2.33 after the fee.
These numbers are illustrative, not a quote: the FRR changes every hour and moves with leverage demand, sitting far below or above this in different regimes.
Common misconception
The FRR is not a guaranteed yield, and it is not an APR. It is a gross daily rate that changes hourly; lending at the FRR earns the market average minus Bitfinex’s 15% interest fee, and loans can be repaid early, putting your capital back in the queue. Treat any single FRR snapshot as a point-in-time reading, never a promised return.
FAQ
Is the FRR an annual rate?
No. The FRR is a daily rate. Multiply by 365 for the annualized figure: a 0.02% daily FRR is about 7.3% APR. It is also gross — Bitfinex deducts 15% of the interest you earn before it reaches your wallet.
How often does the FRR change?
Bitfinex recalculates the FRR every hour, per currency, from recent funding market activity. A loan pegged to the FRR floats with those hourly updates for its entire term.
Should I lend at the FRR or at a fixed rate?
Pegging to the FRR is the simplest option and tracks the market average. Fixed-rate offers let you undercut the FRR for faster fills or ask above it to catch demand spikes — at the cost of constant rate-watching, which is exactly the work lending bots automate.
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