Cointelegraph Team
Cointelegraph
Amid the ongoing growth of the cryptocurrency lending industry, major crypto wallet service Blockchain.com launches a new lending product for all users, not just institutions.
After first launching an institutional crypto lending desk in August 2019, Blockchain.com is now rolling out its crypto lending service to all users across more than 180 countries, the United Kingdom-based firm announced to Cointelegraph on March 10.
Borrow allows users to borrow Paxos Standard against Bitcoin at the launch
The new lending product from Blockchain.com, dubbed Borrow, allows to users borrow Paxos Standard stablecoin (PAX) against Bitcoin (BTC) directly from the platform’s native cryptocurrency wallet.
At launch, Blockchain.com’s Borrow will only support PAX loans against Bitcoin, while the firm is planning to expand the platform to other assets in the near future, a spokesperson at Blockchain.com told Cointelegraph.
PAX stablecoin is one of the major United States dollar-pegged stablecoins after the largest Tether (USDT). Based on the Ethereum blockchain, Paxos Standard is backed 1:1 by the U.S. dollar and is purportedly the second most widely traded stablecoin in the crypto market after USDT. As of press time, PAX is ranked the 33rd-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, which amounts to around $266 million according to data from Coin360.
Expanding crypto lending service exposure from institutional to retail investors
Peter Smith, co-founder and CEO of Blockchain.com, outlined that the new development significantly expands the set of services offered to the firm’s users. Specifically, Smith emphasized that Borrow enables retail traders to trade like the “big guys,” stressing that institutional and retail investors have the same financial goals.
By offering the retail market access to the same liquidity pool as institutional investors, Blockchain.com intends to address the shortage of USD on both sides of the crypto market, the firm noted in the announcement.
The Blockchain.com CEO said:
Institutional and retail investors have the same financial goals — grow wealth and manage risks — but the tools at their disposal are vastly different [...] 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.
Growth of the crypto lending industry
Since the launch of Blockchain.com’s institutional lending platform in August 2019, the firm had loaned more than $120 million as of November, significantly increasing loans from $10 million in the first month.
Blockchain.com’s new lending product Borrow comes amid a rise in crypto companies launching crypto loan services. On March 5, major Bitcoin payment firm BitGo officially launched its institutional-level crypto lending service. As reported by Cointelegrpaph, BitGo doesn’t plan to roll out the service to non-institutional clients in the near future though.
Previously, cryptocurrency lending startup Celsius Network saw its interest payments more than double in the three months since November 2019.
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