# Lending Related Articles

HTX News Center provides the latest articles and in-depth analysis on "Lending", covering market trends, project updates, tech developments, and regulatory policies in the crypto industry.

Venus Protocol Integrates Tokenized Stocks As Lending Collateral On BNB Chain

Venus Protocol now allows tokenized stocks from companies like Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft to be used as borrowing collateral on BNB Chain. This integration brings a key real-world asset (RWA) use case into DeFi lending. Users can deposit these tokenized equities, which are described as 1:1 backed by real shares held by regulated custodians, into isolated pools to borrow stablecoins or BNB without selling their underlying positions. This move expands DeFi lending beyond crypto-native assets, resembling traditional margin finance. It highlights BNB Chain's competition for RWA activity and aims to attract more stable liquidity. However, tokenized stocks introduce different risks, including dependency on off-chain custodians and challenges with collateral valuation due to differing market hours between traditional and on-chain trading. While not an immediate price catalyst, this development is significant within broader crypto trends like compliance pressure and RWA tokenization. Success will depend on growing liquidity, reliable custody, robust price oracles, and clear rules for redemptions and liquidations.

bitcoinist5h ago

Venus Protocol Integrates Tokenized Stocks As Lending Collateral On BNB Chain

bitcoinist5h ago

A Guide to Grayscale’s ‘Bottom Fishing’: Using Cash Flow to Assess Cryptocurrency Value

**Title:** Grayscale's Guide to Bottom-Fishing: Valuing Cryptoassets Using Cash Flows **Summary:** This report by Grayscale Research presents a fundamental valuation framework for cryptocurrency assets, moving beyond pure speculation to analyze those with underlying cash flows. It distinguishes between "commodity-like" assets (e.g., Bitcoin) and "cash-flow" assets, primarily within DeFi. Using the leading decentralized lending protocol Aave as a case study, the analysis applies traditional financial methodologies like Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Price-to-Earnings (P/E) multiples. Key findings indicate that AAVE tokens are currently undervalued. Despite recent challenges, the protocol's strong revenue growth, ~50% net profit margin, and diversified treasury support a fundamental valuation range of $80-$100 per token (compared to a ~$75 market price at the time of writing). In a base-case scenario driven by stablecoin adoption and regulatory clarity, the fair value could rise to around $175 within a year. The report emphasizes that protocol success does not automatically translate to token value. It critically examines the "value capture" mechanisms—such as buybacks, burns, and staking rewards—that channel protocol profits to token holders. Furthermore, it addresses the legal and governance complexities of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), noting their difference from traditional corporate equity but highlighting how robust, transparent governance can align protocol economics with holder interests. The conclusion is that the crypto market is maturing, with capital increasingly flowing towards projects with demonstrable fundamentals, real adoption, and disciplined capital allocation, creating opportunities for value-based investors.

marsbitYesterday 04:23

A Guide to Grayscale’s ‘Bottom Fishing’: Using Cash Flow to Assess Cryptocurrency Value

marsbitYesterday 04:23

The Fate of Digital Banks: A Fancy App Can't Match a Banking License

**Title:** The Fate of Digital Banks: A Fancy App is No Match for a Banking License **Summary:** The article argues that digital-only "neobanks" have struggled to achieve profitability, with 76% still operating at a loss. Their core mistake was focusing on offering low-fee checking accounts, which generate minimal revenue from interchange fees. The fundamental profit engine of banking is **credit**—lending money and earning interest—a business largely restricted to licensed entities. Successful neobanks like **Nubank** and **Revolut** only became profitable by pivoting to become full-scale lenders, using their sleek apps as mere customer acquisition tools. Others, like **Chime**, suffered for years relying solely on transaction fees before embracing lending. The piece highlights the systemic risks of depending on third-party infrastructure, exemplified by the **Synapse** bankruptcy which froze millions in user funds. The only reliable safeguard is a **banking license**, which provides direct regulatory oversight and control over assets. This realization is now dawning in the cryptocurrency sector. Major firms like Paxos, Circle, and Crypto.com are actively seeking **national trust charters** from the OCC to legitimize their operations and escape dependency on traditional banking partners. Companies like **SoFi** have completed the evolution from fintech to licensed bank to stablecoin issuer. While DeFi has grown in secured lending, **unsecured lending** remains minuscule due to the lack of real-world identity and legal recourse for defaults on blockchain. Truly scaling credit likely requires a banking license. The conclusion is stark: despite promises of disruption, surviving digital banks have simply replicated the age-old banking model—profiting from interest on loans. A user-friendly interface changes the experience, but not the essential economics. In the end, a banking license is not an option but a necessity for sustainable operation.

marsbit06/18 01:53

The Fate of Digital Banks: A Fancy App Can't Match a Banking License

marsbit06/18 01:53

The Fate of Digital Banks: No Fancy App Can Outshine a Banking License

The Fate of Digital Banks: A Flashy App is No Match for a Banking License The article argues that despite attracting billions of users with fee-free checking accounts and sleek apps, most "neobanks" struggle to be profitable because their core business—transaction fees—is inherently low-margin. The real profit engine of banking is lending (credit), which generates interest income. However, many early neobanks operated without their own banking licenses, which restricted their ability to lend at scale. Examples like Nubank, Revolut, and Chime illustrate the point. While they gained users with free accounts, their eventual profitability came from rolling out credit products. The piece highlights systemic risks for neobanks that rely on third-party infrastructure, citing the Synapse bankruptcy, which froze user funds and revealed the fragility of such models. The solution, according to the author, is obtaining a formal banking license, like the U.S. OCC's national trust charter. This provides regulatory backing, allows direct custody of funds, and eliminates dependency on intermediary partners. The trend is now evident in the crypto sector, where companies like Kraken, SoFi, and others are actively pursuing such licenses. The article concludes that while technology changes, the fundamental business logic of banking—profiting from lending—remains constant. Successful digital banks ultimately conform to this old model, just with better interfaces and fairer terms.

Foresight News06/17 10:03

The Fate of Digital Banks: No Fancy App Can Outshine a Banking License

Foresight News06/17 10:03

ETFs Are Just the Ticket: The True Institutionalization of Bitcoin Is Happening Where You Can't See It

Beyond the Bitcoin ETF spotlight, a deeper institutionalization is underway, leveraging Bitcoin as a foundational financial primitive. Institutions are using Bitcoin for purposes long reserved for assets like U.S. Treasuries and gold: as collateral for loans, insurance reserves, and the backbone of rated bonds. Examples include a Barbados-based insurer capitalizing with $40M in Bitcoin reserves and Ledn's $188M securitization of Bitcoin-backed loans, which received the first-ever investment-grade rating (BBB-) from S&P for a digital asset-backed security. This structure was stress-tested during a 27% price drop in early 2026, triggering automatic liquidations that functioned as designed but revealed the systemic risk of synchronized selling across leveraged positions. Infrastructure is evolving to support this, with platforms like Anchorage Digital's Atlas network enabling secure, institutional-grade settlement and collateral management. Strategies like basis trades and corporate treasuries (exemplified by companies like MicroStrategy issuing billions in equity and debt to fund Bitcoin acquisitions) further integrate Bitcoin into financial mechanics. While ETFs solved "how to own" Bitcoin, these developments answer "what to do with it," embedding the asset into the working machinery of finance—as collateral upon which loans, derivatives, and structured products are built. The real, enduring institutional shift is happening in these largely invisible plumbing and financing systems.

marsbit06/15 03:54

ETFs Are Just the Ticket: The True Institutionalization of Bitcoin Is Happening Where You Can't See It

marsbit06/15 03:54

Coinbase And Ethena Launch High Yield USDC Vault Powered By Morpho

Coinbase has launched a new High Yield USDC Vault in collaboration with Ethena Labs and powered by Morpho, curated by Steakhouse Financial. This marks the first live product from the Coinbase-Ethena partnership, offering Coinbase users access to enhanced yields through a simplified interface. Unlike Coinbase's more conservative vaults, this product accepts a broader collateral mix, including synthetic assets like Ethena's USDe, which allows for higher potential returns but introduces greater risks related to collateral behavior and market dynamics. The annual percentage yields (APYs) are dynamic and not guaranteed. The launch underscores a trend of centralized exchanges packaging complex DeFi strategies into user-friendly products, expanding access while highlighting the need for clear risk disclosure. The vault is currently available to eligible users in the U.S. (excluding New York) and select international markets.

bitcoinist06/13 23:04

Coinbase And Ethena Launch High Yield USDC Vault Powered By Morpho

bitcoinist06/13 23:04

Frax Governance Weighs Raising sfrxUSD Aave v4 Allocation Cap To $50 Million

Frax Finance governance is considering a proposal (FIP-4XX) to increase the allocation cap for its sfrxUSD strategy in Aave v4 from $20 million to $50 million. This is framed as a strategic expansion to support ecosystem growth and enhance distribution, not merely a short-term yield play. Aave is a critical DeFi lending market, and deeper integration helps frxUSD and sfrxUSD reach more users and strategies. The raised cap provides deployment flexibility, but actual usage will be managed based on liquidity and risk. The proposal highlights the competition among stablecoin protocols for placement in major DeFi venues and demonstrates how governance uses incremental caps to control growth and risk.

bitcoinist06/13 13:04

Frax Governance Weighs Raising sfrxUSD Aave v4 Allocation Cap To $50 Million

bitcoinist06/13 13:04

RWA First Stock's Major Acquisition: Why Buy a 'Traditional' Mortgage Company?

On June 10th, Figure Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: FIGR), a blockchain-native capital markets firm, announced a $717 million acquisition of Kiavi, a leading non-bank lender for residential real estate investors. The deal involves Figure acquiring Kiavi's technology and operations for approximately $538 million, while forming a joint venture with alternative asset manager Sixth Street to purchase Kiavi's existing loan portfolio. Sixth Street also provided a $3 billion forward purchase commitment. This acquisition marks a strategic shift for Figure, known as the "RWA (Real World Asset) first stock," allowing it to expand significantly into the larger market of first-lien mortgages. Kiavi specializes in non-qualified mortgage (Non-QM) loans, such as short-term fix-and-flip (RTL) and rental property (DSCR) loans—a segment traditionally underserved by major banks. The move is expected to increase Figure's first-lien loan origination to over $7 billion annually, aiming for these to constitute about 40% of its business by 2027. Both companies leverage AI for underwriting: Kiavi uses proprietary models to value renovated properties and automate document processing, dominating the fix-and-flip lending space. Figure plans to integrate these assets onto its blockchain platform, Provenance, using its new 'Adaptor' product to standardize and tokenize the loans for institutional investors on its Democratized Prime marketplace. While the integration poses challenges—including merging different asset types, interest rate sensitivity of Kiavi's loans, and post-IPO execution risks—Figure projects the deal to be accretive to earnings with a cash payback period under four years. The transaction is seen as a major step in scaling blockchain-based capital markets, moving RWA tokenization from concept validation toward large-scale operation.

Foresight News06/12 02:05

RWA First Stock's Major Acquisition: Why Buy a 'Traditional' Mortgage Company?

Foresight News06/12 02:05

Understanding Morpho Midnight: When On-Chain Lending Meets Fixed Rates and Term Markets

Morpho Midnight is a novel, non-custodial fixed-rate lending protocol for EVM chains. It addresses a key structural gap in DeFi by introducing isolated, immutable markets with fixed maturity dates, moving beyond the dominant perpetual, floating-rate model of protocols like Aave and Compound. The core innovation is reframing lending as the trading of zero-coupon "units." Lenders buy units at a discount to par value, locking in a fixed yield, while borrowers sell units to secure fixed-cost funding. This creates a native chain-based syntax for fixed-income assets. Crucially, markets mature on fixed calendar dates, ensuring fungibility and pooling liquidity by maturity rather than fragmenting it. Midnight's offer-based matching mechanism is its efficiency engine. Makers can post non-binding, capital-efficient offers that only draw funds via a callback upon execution. Coupled with "consumption groups," this allows a single pool of capital to provide liquidity across multiple markets and maturities simultaneously, dramatically reducing opportunity costs and aiding market bootstrapping. Protocol-level routing is eschewed in favor of a competitive external solver layer. Additional features include tailored liquidation logic for fixed-term markets, optional gate contracts for compliance (KYC, whitelisting), and a clear, capped fee structure. For institutions and Real-World Assets (RWA), Midnight provides the predictability of fixed costs and defined tenors. By combining DeFi's permissionless composability with traditional fixed-income microstructure, it lays the foundation for a complete on-chain yield curve and bridges链上信贷 to the vast traditional credit market.

marsbit06/10 11:17

Understanding Morpho Midnight: When On-Chain Lending Meets Fixed Rates and Term Markets

marsbit06/10 11:17

Blockbooster: Interpreting the Limitations and Possibilities of On-Chain Native Credit Origination

This article discusses the promise and current limitations of "on-chain native credit origination"—the creation of credit based on a borrower's on-chain behavior and reputation, rather than over-collateralization (like Aave) or tokenization of off-chain loans. The piece defines two interpretations of "on-chain native": 1) process-native (already achieved by protocols like Aave) and 2) credit assessment-native, which is the unsolved challenge. This involves underwriting based on on-chain activity, not collateral. It examines early attempts like 3Jane (using verified off-chain financial data) and Divine (using World ID and a "repay-to-increase-credit" model). While innovative, both rely on external pillars (off-chain data or biometric identity) rather than solving the core problem: assessing the creditworthiness of a pseudonymous, on-chain entity. The article argues that for the stablecoin ecosystem to evolve beyond being a "narrow bank" (holding only safe assets), true credit creation is necessary. However, progress is stalled by a chicken-and-egg problem akin to the pre-FICO era: the lack of a standardized, widely accepted on-chain credit score and a system for cross-protocol reputation (where default consequences are felt everywhere). Given the extreme difficulty of building this foundational layer (persistent identity, data pipes, a credit bureau), the article suggests more viable, incremental approaches that focus on "rewarding good behavior" rather than "punishing default": 1. **Progressive Collateral Reduction:** Gradually lowering collateral requirements for addresses with strong repayment histories. 2. **Cash Flow Interception:** Lending against future, programmable on-chain revenue streams (e.g., protocol fees), which are automatically diverted to repay the loan. 3. **Curator/Delegated Credit Models:** Letting trusted entities with "skin in the game" (first-loss capital) make underwriting decisions, with the protocol providing transparency and execution. The conclusion is that the likely path forward is not a top-down "on-chain FICO," but the bottom-up accumulation of valuable reputation through these reward-based mechanisms within individual protocols and ecosystems.

marsbit06/10 07:14