Ledn, the Toronto-based Bitcoin lending firm, is making a bold bet on the future of borrowing against crypto. The company projects that the consumer Bitcoin-backed lending market could balloon from roughly $3 billion today to $1 trillion within the next decade.
That’s a nearly 300x increase. Ledn is backing the claim with survey data, its own origination numbers, and a straightforward thesis: most Bitcoin holders want to borrow against their stash, and almost none of them actually do.
The gap between wanting and doing
A survey of 1,244 Bitcoin holders across the US and Australia, conducted by Protocol Theory, found that 88% of respondents said they would consider taking out a BTC-collateralized loan. Only 14% currently use one.
The barriers aren’t mysterious. Trust, volatility, liquidation risk, and regulatory uncertainty topped the list of concerns among respondents. All four of those got significantly worse after 2022, when Celsius, Voyager, and BlockFi imploded in quick succession and took billions in customer funds with them.
