Crypto Lender Ledn Sees Strong Q1 Performance with $690M in Loans, Driven by US Spot Crypto ETF Adoption

Crypto lender Ledn revealed loans statistics for the first quarter on Thursday, surpassing all previous quarters since its inception in 2018.The lender said it facilitated over $690m in loans, with a split of $584m going to institutional clients and $106m to retail investors. Notably, over $40m of the retail loans were refinanced from crypto lender Celsius following its collapse.Ledn’s Q1 loan volume more than tripled from the previous quarter. In Q4, the company processed just $125.7m in institutional loans and $14.6m in retail loans. Ledn credits this surge to the recent approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, which fueled a rally in Bitcoin’s price.“These developments allowed Ledn to process several hundred million in institutional loans to ETF market makers,” the company said.

Following Celsius’s bankruptcy, Ledn launched a refinancing program and said it garnered confidence from the crypto community. This resulted in Ledn securing $40m in refinanced loans, exceeding half of the total refinanced amount.“The first quarter of 2024 has set the tone for a promising year for Ledn, as we’ve not only doubled our loan book since November 2022 but have also solidified our leading position in the market by adapting to the increasing demand for digital asset financial products,” Ledn CEO Adam Reeds said in a statement.Ledn’s successful Q1 isn’t an isolated case. The broader crypto lending market is experiencing a resurgence. Coinbase’s Q4 2023 shareholder letter revealed a similar trend, with the exchange actively lending $399m to customers during that period.

Responding to strong client, Ledn rolled out Ethereum-backed loans in February. These ETH loans mirror the lender’s Bitcoin (BTC) loans, offering a starting loan-to-value ratio of 50% and an annual interest rate starting at 10.4% (12.4% APR).Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, Ledn’s co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, told Cryptonews that the loan processing experience on the platform is straightforward. “You do not need to learn how to interact with protocols to access a Ledn ETH-backed loan,” he said.He also predicted that crypto ETFs will soon encompass a broader array of crypto assets within a single investment vehicle.