Bitcoin also has small loan companies

Nakamoto 2025-10-28 14:27 14717人围观 BTC

When it comes to "small loan companies" or "lending companies", you may first think of Ant Financial's "Huabei" and "Jiebei". Their core business is to lend you "money" (RMB) based on your credit score and consumption data.

But you may have heard less about Bitcoin-based lending companies.

What we are going to introduce today is Ledn, a “Bitcoin micro-loan company” that is very popular in the “currency circle”. It doesn’t look at your credit score, just the Bitcoin you hold.

This company from Canada announced in the past third quarter of 2025 that its annualized recurring revenue (ARR) has exceeded US$100 million, and its cumulative loan disbursement during the year exceeded US$1 billion. In a high-risk industry, Ledn not only survived, but thrived.

What does Ledn do? How is it different from "Huabei"?

Ledn and Ant Financial solve completely different problems.

Ant Financial (Credit Loan): You have no money, but you have credit. Ant lends you money based on "credit" for consumption. This is essentially a line of credit.
Ledn (mortgage): You have money (bitcoin asset) but you don’t want to sell it. Ledn lends you money based on your "equity". This is essentially an asset-backed loan.

Ledn’s core customers are Bitcoin “long-term holders” (HODLers). Picture this: you hold 1 million worth of Bitcoins and you firmly believe that it will rise to 5 million in the future. But now you need $300,000 in cash to buy a car or pay for a down payment on a house.

You have two options:

Sell 300,000 Bitcoins: You get cash immediately, but you also permanently lose the possibility of future appreciation of this part of Bitcoin, and you may also have to pay capital gains tax.
Using Ledn: You mortgage 1 million worth of Bitcoins to Ledn, and Ledn lends you 300,000 in cash. You only pay interest and your Bitcoins remain yours. Once you repay the loan, the Bitcoin will be returned in full.

Ledn’s profit model is to earn the interest difference on this loan.

Survivor of the storm: “Bitcoin only” focus

Ledn was founded in 2018. In 2022, the entire crypto lending industry experienced a devastating blow, with hundreds of billions of giants such as Celsius and BlockFi going bankrupt one after another. The core reason for their failure is that in order to pursue high returns, customers' assets were used for high-risk speculation, and their operations were extremely opaque.

Ledn’s ability to survive the “crypto winter” relies on two key strategies:

1. Focus on Bitcoin and abandon risks
Ledn’s business has always been Bitcoin-centric. While competitors indulge in various high-risk altcoins and DeFi protocols, Ledn has exercised great restraint. A powerful example is: in May 2025, Ledn announced that it would stop providing Ethereum (ETH)-related loans and further focus its business on Bitcoin, the most mature crypto asset.

2. Ultimate Transparency: “Proof of Reserves””
As early as 2020, Ledn pioneered the introduction of independent Proof-of-Reserves (PoR) audits. This means that it will regularly prove to the public that the assets (liabilities) it holds for its clients match the assets it actually owns 1:1 and that there has been no misappropriation.

After experiencing the "black box operation" scandals of platforms such as FTX and Celsius, this verifiable transparency has become Ledn's strongest moat.

From Survival to Breakout: Institutional Clients Bringing in ETFs

If the conservative strategy allowed Ledn to survive, then the approval of the US spot Bitcoin ETF in early 2024 completely ignited Ledn’s growth engine.

The emergence of ETFs has brought huge institutional clients.

These ETF market makers, hedge funds and exchanges require huge liquidity to conduct arbitrage and manage subscriptions and redemptions. They need a reliable, transparent counterparty to borrow large amounts of Bitcoin or USD.

Ledn has become the preferred partner of these institutions with its clean background and strong risk control (as of September 2025, its average loan-to-collateral ratio LTV is only 42.7%, meaning that the value of the collateral far exceeds the loan amount).