Lending against cryptocurrency as collateral is booming. Despite the challenging dip in crypto prices, various companies in the sector are still going strong. The demand for loans is also going up so much so that BlockFi announces its global expansion.
The idea behind cryptocurrency lending is simple. Take the traditional lending where one borrows, say US dollars, against a pool of stocks that one owns. With this new model, the pool of stocks is a single or a diverse group of “crypto assets” like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), etc. The model is quite important to cryptocurrency miners who want a short-term access to fiat. This way, the crypto holders may not have to liquidate their crypto holdings.
BlockFi Announces Global Expansion due to Demand
BlockFi is among the foremost cryptocurrency lenders and is doing well in the American market. At present, the company covers 45 states. Interestingly, the crypto-to-USD credit market aims to break the narrative that borrowing USD is just for governments.
According to Zac Prince, BlockFi CEO and Co-Founder, the company aims to expose individual businesses to the USD Credit market. Already, the company is seeing “overwhelming” uptake of its services in the US. Therefore, they would like to test international waters. “We are excited to be leveraging cryptoassets to make USD debt available worldwide at dramatically cheaper rates, especially in emerging markets,” Prince said.
BlockFi acknowledges that there are markets where it is easier to access cryptocurrency than fiat. In light of this, the company would like to provide “incremental liquidity” in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Interestingly, BlockFi reveals that about 50% of its website traffic came outside the US. Therefore, the company added Spanish and Mandarin to its customer service to reach a wider clientele.
Supporting New Cryptocurrencies
Prior to the expansion plans, BlockFi added the support for Gemini Stablecoin (GUSD) and Litecoin (LTC). One of the reasons for the additions is that the cryptocurrencies are among the best ten by market capitalization. Most importantly, the coins would facilitate BlockFi’s scaling of its services to global markets.
Commenting on the additions, Prince said,
“We’re excited to add support for GUSD and LTC and to welcome the Litecoin community to our platform. BlockFi is already the lowest-cost crypto-backed lender in the U.S. and we’re planning to expand our services to more collateral types and geographies in the short term.”
According to Prince, as BlockFi announces a global expansion, it will continue adding cryptocurrencies for wider reach.
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