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The digital assets lending field seems to be heating up with Blockchain.com starting to offer lending directly to retail consumers globally. Borrowed USD stablecoins can be used by crypto traders to fund their next trades and thus increase the leverage of their holdings.
Also Read: Blockchain.com Launches High Speed Crypto Exchange for Retail Traders
Blockchain.com, the provider of cryptocurrency services with over 46 million wallets created to date, has launched Borrow, a product offering retail users to borrow USD-pegged stablecoins against crypto assets held in their wallets. The new lending service is now available to users in more than 180 countries.
This launch follows the launch by Blockchain.com of an institutional lending desk in August 2019, which was handling $120 million a month by November. And the company said it will be offering retail users access to the same liquidity pool as institutional investors.
The company explained that as soon as the collateral is posted, users receive their loan and are free to use the stablecoins however they see fit. This means that retail traders can also use it to fund new trades without cashing out their previous investments and thus increase their leverage.
“Institutional and retail investors have the same financial goals – grow wealth and manage risks – but the tools at their disposal are vastly different,” commented Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain.com. “Now, with our suite of trading products and Borrow, retail users can trade like the big guys without selling the crypto they’ve stockpiled or leaving their wallet.”
On Thursday, March 5, custody service provider Bitgo announced that it is now offering institutional digital asset lending services after a few months of private beta. The lending service was said to be built by a Wall Street team that understands institutional investors’ needs.
“Our goal was to build a lending business that is similar to lending businesses in the traditional financial markets,” said Nick Carmi, Head of Financial Services, Bitgo. “We are not interested in a high-volume, low-margin business; we are building deep relationships with our clients to drive value for them and to create a long term, sustainable business.”
Babel Finance, a Chinese crypto lending company, also released its 2019 annual report on March 5. In its outlook on 2020 the report noted that “The lending market is increasingly crowded because of the horizontal development strategy adopted by various crypto finance players.” Still, the company’s outstanding loan balance broke a new record high this year, reaching $380 million on February 18, 2020.
What do you think about Blockchain.com offering USD borrowing to retail wallet users? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.
Avi Mizrahi is an economist and entrepreneur who has been covering Bitcoin as a journalist since 2013. He has spoken about the promise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology at numerous financial conferences around the world, from London to Hong-Kong.
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