Renewed Market Growth Has Sparked Demand for Crypto-Backed Loans

With cryptocurrency markets back to life, hodling sounds like a smart strategy once again. Cryptocurrency owners are now more likely to pledge coins to borrow fiat if they need it, rather than sell their appreciating digital assets. The spread of crypto-backed loans could also be a good indicator of investor sentiment. According to a source from the industry, the customer base has been growing.

Also read: Online Bank Mistertango Offers Crypto Companies Multiple Accounts and Ibans

Borrow Fiat, Keep Your Crypto

Prices of major cryptocurrencies have been rising in the past few weeks and demand for loans granted against digital assets is likely to follow suit, as more crypto investors lean towards hodling. Platforms providing crypto-backed loans have increased in the last couple of years. They are also now offering more diverse services, including interest on crypto savings. These companies are poised to benefit from the growing crypto market, considering the low interest rates maintained by central banks and traditional financial institutions.

Some of these businesses have already made a name in the crypto industry. Notable examples include Salt Lending, which operates in over a couple of dozen markets around the world and has tens of thousands of users. Salt accepts a number of popular cryptocurrencies as collateral such as bitcoin core, ethereum, litecoin, dash, and dogecoin. It offers loan-to-value ratio of up to 70%, at 5.99% APR, for loans between $5,000 and $25,000,000.

Youhodler is another platform which lends up to $30,000 against eight major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin cash (BCH), as well as the REP token. It claims the highest loan-to-value ratio in the sector, 90% according to its website, and offers instant payments in euro, U.S. dollar and tether (USDT). Youhodler also supports purchases of crypto assets and provides crypto exchange services.

ETH Lend takes ETH, BTC, LEND, and a variety of ERC20 tokens as collateral, allowing users to borrow ethereum, lend tokens, major stablecoins, and fiat-pegged ethereum loans calculated in USD, GBP, INR, KRW, JPY, and CNY. Its minimum yearly interest rate is 3% and the loan duration is up to 12 months. Other websites offering crypto-backed loans include Unchained Capital, Hodl Finance and Coin Loan.

An exciting new partnership in the same market niche has been announced just recently. Bitcoin.com, which now has over 4 million bitcoin wallets, and Cred, a major provider of crypto borrowing and lending services with over $300 million in credit facilities, have teamed up to allow Bitcoin.com customers to earn up to 10% interest on their BCH and BTC holdings.

Growing Demand for Credit in Different Market Conditions

Antoni Trenchev

The positive signals crypto markets have been sending recently will certainly help the industry. To better understand how a crypto-backed lending platform works and find out more about the current state of the market, news.Bitcoin.com spoke with Antoni Trenchev, managing partner at Nexo, which is another major provider of crypto loan services. He shared that Nexo’s automated lending solution has been enjoying a continuously growing customer base in various market conditions, although growth has been markedly stronger during more favorable periods.

Since its establishment a little over a year ago, Nexo has become one of the leading savings and lending platforms in the crypto space having processed close to $500 million of assets. It maintains a wallet allowing clients to earn daily interest on their stablecoin holdings or use decentralized digital assets as collateral to borrow amounts in over 45 fiat currencies and several stablecoins. Nexo’s Instant Crypto Credit Line provides quick access to loans secured with cryptocurrencies and the company claims to have over 180,000 users worldwide.

Major coins such as bitcoin core, ethereum, litecoin, and ripple, along with Binance coin and the Nexo token, are currently accepted as collateral. Plans for the future include expanding the list of supported cryptocurrencies to add bitcoin cash (BCH) among other coins and introducing instant credit lines backed by digital security assets through a partnership with Securitize. Nexo maintains fixed interest rates, charging between 8% and a maximum of 16% per year, allowing anyone to borrow from as low as $500 to as much as $2,000,000.

Nexo’s Earn Interest product allows customers to receive up to 6.5% of interest on their saved stablecoins such as USDC, TUSD, PAX, DAI, USDT, and since recently а compounding interest of 6.5% is paid out daily on EUR holdings. Other cryptocurrencies will be added as well. “We are constantly working to expand our products so they can better serve the needs of our clients. Adding support for other digital assets for the Nexo Interest Earning product is just a matter of time,” Trenchev emphasized.

Meanwhile, the company is also developing a payment card product with a credit line limit based on the market value of the digital coins in the user’s account. The Nexo Card will be a Mastercard linked directly to its holder’s credit limit allowing customers to spend without the need to withdraw their funds. Crypto enthusiasts will certainly appreciate more platforms in the sector issuing crypto credit cards as these will allow them to spend their coins on more products and services.

How to Get a Loan Against Your Crypto Holdings

To take advantage of Nexo’s instant crypto credit line, users need to create an account and pass a simple know-your-customer (KYC) procedure in the Profile section on its website. Providing name, address and phone number will be enough for loans of up to $10,000 a month. Advanced verification is required to borrow larger amounts of up to $2 million and in this case users will be asked to upload a copy of an ID. Companies have to pass corporate KYC and provide a different set of documents. All users must activate two-factor authentication from the Security page.

To receive credit, customers have to deposit their crypto assets to the Nexo wallet. The platform uses multi-sig cold storage wallets provided by Bitgo and custodial assets are insured for up to $100 million by Lloyd’s. Any physical or cybersecurity breach would trigger procedures to compensate potential losses. Trenchev added that assets are distributed geographically and organizationally. Nexo also uses advanced authentication mechanisms and implements measures to ensure the privacy of its clients.

The platform’s loan limit is 50% of the deposited funds in BTC and ETH but the percentage varies for other crypto assets depending on their risk levels. Once the digital funds are transferred, customers can proceed to the Withdraw Loan section and choose the preferred withdrawal method providing their fiat currency bank account or tether address. Nexo offers a flexible repayment scheme with no minimum loan repayments. There are no credit checks and in many jurisdictions crypto holders are not obliged to pay capital gains tax as they are not selling their cryptocurrency.

Have you borrowed fiat funds using crypto assets as collateral? What other platforms in the sector do you know? Share your experience in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Nexo.

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